Milestone had confidence in our business. Their investment allowed us to roll-out into new markets and further improve productivity from our original 550+ sites.Scott Martin, CEO
| Location |  |
|---|---|
| Date of investment | Mar 2008 |
| Activity | UK market leader in providing self-service gourmet coffee |
| Investment Size | €10.0m |
| Type/stage | MBO / Roll-out |
| Revenues | €24.0m |
| Transaction Size | €30.0m |
| Milestone Board Members | |
| Date of realisation | March 2011 |
The Business
Founded in 1999, Coffee Nation was the UK market leader in providing self-serve gourmet coffee targeting the ‘on-the-go’ market. Coffee Nation pioneered the original concept for self-serve gourmet coffee looking to combine premium quality barista coffee with the consistency, availability and ease of vending.
The Management
The management teams was led by Scott Martin, Chief Executive Officer who led the original buy-out from the founder in 2008. He had been with the business since its formation in 1999 and was previously the Operations Director before being promoted to the role of CEO.
Strategic Development
The strategy was three fold:-
(i) Consolidate existing markets (e.g. petrol station forecourts),
(ii) Grow into new markets (e.g. Universities, offices),
(iii) Expand into Europe.
The business successfully achieved (i) and (ii) (growing the installation base from 550 machines to over 900) and had opened discussions with a number of partners in relation to (iii) before an off market approach was received from a trade buyer. Following this approach, Milestone conducted a limited auction process that resulted in the business being sold to Costa Coffee in March 2011 generating a return of 3.7x cost in under 3 years.