Costa Coffee boss to depart

Costa coffee chain now has thousands of branches

Chris Rogers has been with the company 11 years, joining as Whitbread’s finance director in 2005 and becoming managing director of Costa in 2012, where he has grown the coffee business from 2,500 stores to more than 3,200.

Rogers will be replaced by Dominic Paul, who joins from cruise ship chain Royal Caribbean International, where he has been senior vice president international since November 2013.

Paul, who takes up his new role on 6 June, joined the cruise chain in 2010 from airline bmi, where he was MD and chief operating officer.

Whitbread said in its statement that Rogers will step down from the Board following its next meeting on 20 April, but stay on with the company until 1 July to smooth the transition.

Alison Brittain, group chief executive, said: “During his tenure Chris has played a key role in establishing the successful group we have today, and I would like to thank him for this and to wish him well in the future.”

She said his successor “brings a wealth of experience in the travel and leisure industry”. Rogers commented: “I have loved being part of Whitbread and Costa during a period of enormous value creation and growth, and after 11 years I have decided that now is the right time for a change.”

Whitbread revealed in a trading update last month that Costa’s same-floorspace sales only edged up 0.5 per cent in the 11 weeks to 11 February as customers shunned their normal coffee in the warmest December on record.

That compared with 3 per cent like-for-like sales growth at Costa over the 50 weeks to that date.