McCafé aims to become top European coffee chain

McCafé aims to become top European coffee chain
4th October 2009

Quick service restaurant McDonald’s McCafé chain is aiming to beome the largest coffee retailer in Europe, a late September Business Week report quoted the company’s Chief Financial Officer Jerome Tafani as saying.

McDonald’s hopes to have 1,100 McCafé outlets open across Europe by the end of 2009, and is to open another 200 next year, according to the report.

McCafé outlets are seen as much cheaper to open than those of rival Starbucks, because McDonald’s is able to use space in existing outlets for separate counters and seating areas, the report said.

Starbucks has about 1,200 outlets in Europe, over 700 of them in the UK, where McCafe has yet to penetrate. However, McCafés have been growing in number in Italy — a market that Starbucks has hesitated to enter — for the past four years, and now has 65 outlets there.