British company buys Coffee Nation

  • 2005-07-20
  • From wire reports
RIGA - U.K.-based Coffeeheaven Holdings Limited has become sole owner of Latvia's Coffee Nation and announced that it plans to open coffee shops in Lithuania and Estonia.


Richard Wortington, president of Coffeeheaven Holdings, the British company that owns Coffeeheaven, one of the largest coffee shop chains in Central Europe, said that no radical changes were planned for existing Coffee Nation franchises, which will retain their name.

Coffeeheaven also has plans to open cafes in Lithuania and Estonia, hoping to embrace the market from the Baltics to Bulgaria, including Ukraine. "The goal of our company is to open some 300-350 coffee bars in Central Europe," said Wortington, adding that the company plans to have 50 cafes by 2006.

He added that although Latvia was a crucial part of the company's operations, there was no rush to open new coffee shops in the country.

Coffeeheaven currently runs 40 shops 's seven in Latvia and the rest in the Czech Republic and Poland 's under the Coffee Nation brand name, and it plans to expand into the Bulgarian and Rumanian market in the near future.

Coffeeheaven Holdings had held a 19.97 percent stake in Coffee Nation since last November. The remaining shares were owned by Johnston Management Limited, a company registered in Great Britain, according to Latvia's business register.

In 2004 Coffee Nation, which was founded in 2001, had sales of 416,000 lats (592,000 euros), up 14.3 percent year-on-year, and incurred a loss of 78,500 lats.