Costa ushers in new data strategy

Coffee chain Costa is implementing new analysis software which puts data at the heart of its business and will drive company-wide decisions on everything from menus, pricing and marketing to staffing and capital investments.
The chain, which has more than 1,600 coffee shops in the UK, has signed up for Applied Predictive Technologies’ Test & Learn Management System. The US software giant already works with 25 industry-leading restaurant brands, such as McDonald’s, Subway, and Olive Garden, and is claimed to analyse 20% of all US retail transactions for its clients.
The technology is able to pinpoint cause and effect and causal relationships, which means management can see how decisions really do alter the performance of their companies. APT has recently received $100m investment from Goldman Sachs.
Costa finance director Matthew Price said: “As the UK’s favourite coffee shop, it is critical for Costa to have the best tools in place to rapidly generate insights that create value for our business.
“APT is instrumental in improving the analytic rigor and speed with which we make decisions on store investment and the right range of products.  The ability to automate complex analytic processes has not only provided more accurate decisions, but it has significantly decreased the time required to understand the impact of each new idea.”
APT chairman Jim Manzi added: “We look forward to a long-term partnership with Costa as they continue to make empirically-driven decisions.”