ASSIGNMENT

ON
Costa Coffee- Heathrow Terminal 4 Airside
Issues In Operations & Recommendations

BY
SACHIN BABAN SHINDE
COURSE- MBA (Hospitality Management)
STUDENT DATA NUMBER-713520
Tutor – Seth Louis
Subject – Operations Management

Sachin Baban Shinde -713520 Operations Management Issues-Costa Coffee Page 1

 Introduction
The Costa Story

In 1971, Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa started a wholesale operation
supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Drawing
on their Italian background and Sergio's experience of blending and roasting
coffee in Parma, the brothers established Costa's unique roasting style. Beans
were slow roasted at reduced temperatures to produce a fuller,less bitter flavour
and a specially developed espresso blend was created of six parts arabica and
one part robusta to create Costa's unique taste. Both the roasting process and
their special blend Mocha Italia are mainstays of the Costa business today.

The Costa brothers opened the first Costa store in London in 1978 and growth
expanded at the rate of two stores per year with the help of their family and
friends in the business. In 1988, the roasting operation moved to Old Paradise
Street in Lambeth, London, where the roaster and green beans (those waiting to
be roasted) are stored.

Developments such as the new roaster were crucial to Costa. With huge growth
over the 1990's the company had increased to 186 stores by 1999 and in 2000,
3.7 million cups of coffee were sold each week.

Costa is now the leading UK branded coffee shop with over 300 stores and host
units in a number of complementary retail outlets, including selected Ottakers
and Waterstones bookstores, WHSmith and Homebase stores,Hotels and very
important airports.

Facts and Figures today

1. Costa is the largest chain of branded coffee shops in the UK with over 800
outlets

2. Costa coffee makes the best quality coffee because:

• All Costa coffee beans are slow roasted for 22 minutes to ensure a
smoother flavour than quick roasting, which can produce a bitter taste
• Costa has 30 years Italian heritage perfecting the art of coffee making
• Costa source and buy their own beans from all over the world

3. Costa produces the best blends of coffee using 6 different parts arabica beans
and 1 part robusta.Out of hundred percent 86% of arabica and 14% of robusta.

4. At Costa, we use our own specialist Baristas in all of our stores, who are
trained the Italian way at our dedicated roastery.

5. Costa's own Italian accredited Master Roaster, currently oversees the roasting
of approximately 35 tonnes of coffee per week. With the new roaster, capacity
will nearly double to 65 tonnes per week.

6. Costa coffee is made by hand, rather than by the automated coffee machines
used in some other chains.

7. Costa offers customers a Fairtrade coffee option, which can be requested for
any of our coffees. In addition to this all the traditional and Earl Grey teas are
from Teadirect. This is offered through the partnership with Cafédirect.

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 Products

Beverages:

Brewed coffees,Italian-style espresso, cold blended beverages, roasted

whole bean coffees, tea products, fruit juice, aerated cold
drinks,wine,beer.

Food:

Sandwich, Paninis, pastries, Cakes, and Muffins

Non food items:

Mugs, Travel tumblers, coffeemakers, coffee grinders, storage containers,

seasonal novelty items, Costa card.
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 The Costa Coffee Coffees.
 ESPRESSO
A short, strong and black coffee, with no milk.

 ESPRESSO DOPPIO
A double espresso shot. For those who like it strong.

 RISTRETTO
An extra short coffee, even shorter than an espresso, with an even
stronger flavour.

 MACCHIATO
Espresso topped with just a dash of milk.

 AMERICANO
Coffee, mixing shots of espresso with hot water. Add milk as per customer
requirement

 CAPPUCCINO
Coffee combining espresso with steamed, frothy milk. Chocolate powder
on top as per customer request.

 CAFFE LATTE
Coffee made with steamed milk. It is not as strong as a cappuccino

 MOCHA
Espresso with hot chocolate, topped with steamed, frothed milk.

Information about the Costa Coffee Heathrow Terminal

4

 This shop on heathrow terminal 4 is located in airside near gate 8

opposite to world duty free.
 It opens 4am in morning till 9.30pm in night
 Its one of the shop of costa coffee which generates maximum revenue
with average sale of minimum £6000 daily.
 Because it is on airside it sells spirits,beer and wine which is not available
in a normal costa coffee shops.
 It does an average transaction of 1700-2000 transactions daily.
 It has a staffing of 23 including the store manager.
 It operates with two tills and two coffee machines.
 During operations in busy period the division of staff is as follows

 Two people on till

 Two people on coffee machine,
 one for toasting the sandwiches,
 one for refilling the display of food and drinks

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  One for cleaning and clearing the tables
 One on the dish washing machine

Layout Diagram Of Costa Coffee and its Step by Step Process of

Operation

Sitting Area

Hand
Til
out
Area l Drink Food
2 s
Displ
Coffee Machine Displ ay
ay

Fridg
e

Gri
Que/Line Divider
ll
Frescato
Past
Office Fridg ry STEP 1
e
Disp
lay
Entrance
Coffee Machine
STEP 2
STEP 4
Til
l
2 Drink Food
Hand s
out Displ
Area STEP 5 STEP 3 Displ ay
ay

STEP 6

Sitting
Sachin Baban Area
Shinde -713520 Operations Management Issues-Costa Coffee Page 5
 Explanation of Steps in the Process

Step 1

Customer come and stand in the line/que

Step 2

Customer chooses and takes food or drink from the display

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 Step 3

 Customer goes to the till to order his/her coffee,pastry(cakes,muffins)to

sit in or take away and if he has a Panini to toast he give it the person on
the till.

Step 4

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  The person on till right away give the coffee order to the barista and give
the Panini to the person who he toasting the sandwiches and give him
his/her sandwich number so that he does not have to wait until the
sandwich is toasted and it will be served on the table.

Step 5

 While barista is making coffee the person on the till sets the customer’s
tray like putting the right saucer’s and spoons for the cups and glasses in
which the coffee is being made serving any pastry,cake in the right plate
with right cutlery as per the order.
 Person at the till takes money/Card from the customer and completes the
transaction.

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 Step 5

Coffee is made ready by the barista he place it on to the tray or in take

away cups and the customer takes it from the handout counter next to
the coffee machine.

Step 6

 Customer takes coffee from the handout counter and go to the sitting area
and enjoys his coffee

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 Issues in the Operations

 As costa coffee has their own service standards and service process the
time take to serve a customer is 3-5 minutes which is time consuming for
a place like airport where there is high turnover. In comparison to
starbucks which takes 1 to 1 and half minute to serve a customer which is
more fast and efficient.
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  As its on airport there is a big queue all the time it become very difficult
to manage the queue in busy period as people have to wait some time for
almost 15-20mins and he gets frustrated.
 Being on airport airside its a high security zone area because of this the
delivery of products takes lot of time as it is scanned and checked by the
airport security authority.
 Due to high security zone if the coffee shop run out of any food and drink
stock or non eatable items like takeaway cups,lids materials the staff can
not get it from from other costa shops or store as if it would have on a
normal street.
 In coffee making shops the main ingredient is milk which some time is
short or runs out and becomes difficult to get it from outside due to
security reasons.
 On airport its very difficult to forecast the number of customers that will
be served in a day,many times due to technical difficulties and bad
weather conditions flights are late or cancelled because of this the airport
is busy as well as the costa coffee shop and during this time coffee shop
runs out of many food and drink items.
 There is a lot of staff turnover and to employ a new person on airport
airside is very difficult as it requires a special pass to be made which is
time consuming as the person has to show his past five years reference
and then verified it really takes a long time up to three to six months.
 Due to airport and high security zone the storage area is very less
specially storing of perishable items such as milk and food items like
sandwiches,paninis,it has a dry storage room but three floor down the shop
which is a big disadvantage during the operations if something is finished or
runs out then the staff has to go down three floors and get it which is very
time consuming.
 Due to shortage of staff it is very difficult to serve the customer in
regular ceramic cups and glasses as there is no person to work on
dishwashing machine so the customer is served in take away cups which is
not desirable and not as per costa standards but due to practical difficulties
you have to work in this way.
 Manager faces difficulties to make duty rota’s as he cannot forecast
which period of the day will be the most busiest and he can put more staff on
rota during that shift and the operation runs smoothly.

Recommendations/Solutions for smooth operations

 Costa Coffee should redesign their service model/standards according to the

location of the coffee shop to have more quick and efficient service during
operations rather than sticking to old service standards which is more time
consuming.
 During busy period and big queue’s there should be a person specially
assigned to go to the customers in the queue and take coffee orders and give
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 the orders in advance to the barista and get his sandwich toasted so that till
time reaches the till his coffee and sandwich is ready for him to consume
hence making him feel happy that he is being treated special.
 Manager should keep same number of staff on every shift to perform the
operations smoothly.
 During busy period manager should deploy right people at right places to
perform the job more efficiently.
 Company and the Manager should keep the staff as happy as they can to
avoid staff turnover as it takes a long time to recruitment a new person on
airport airside.
 Staff should be provided with free meals during shifts to keep them happy
and avoiding them from leaving the job.
 Company should make the airside side pass for permanent staff working
outside airport which is a very long procedure,as a result if there is a shortage
of staff on airport shop staff from other shop and go and work making the
operations more smooth.
 During bad weather and flight cancellations its a big opportunity for the coffee
shop to earn more revenue but as a result of high consumption of milk to
make coffee’s the milk runs out as an alternative to this the manager should
have good relationship with the similar food and drink shops from where the
milk or any material can be borrowed till the time the delivery is arrived and
return them their taken stuff back.
 Enough area should be give to storage when designing of store specially cold
store other important materials so that more things can be stored for the high
revenue generating stores like on airport.
 On airport people really don’t have time to enjoy and relax as they have to
catch the flight so they have very short time,costa coffee on airport is
suggested to more focus on serving on take away cups rather than investing
in ceramic cups and glasses hence using the person working in dish washing
in some other productive area during busy operations.
 Costa should focus on quick and faster service because it is airport by
operating both the tills and coffee machine all the time.

References

 http://www.costa.co.uk/coffee/the_coffee.aspx
 http://www.costa.co.uk/coffee/costa_story.aspx

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