Caffè Nero sees strong first quarter sales performance

Caffè Nero has announced strong trading for the first four months of its financial year (June 2022-September 2022), including strong like for like sales growth, taking sales to 107% of pre-pandemic levels.

During the same period, Caffè Nero opened 14 new stores at a group level across its various different territories. Four of those new stores have opened in the UK, including a flagship store in Stansted Airport. Located in the International Departure Lounge at Stansted, the Stansted store had the highest level of sales in its first week of any Caffè Nero store in history.

The Group is forecasting it will open a further 18 new stores during Quarter 2, with seven of those opening in the U.K.

The Nero Group also began a major refurbishment programme which saw an initial 200 stores upgraded across the group over the past 6 months, 140 of which were in the UK, with a further 60 stores scheduled for refurbishment during the next three months.

In the UK, Caffè Nero continued to grow transactions via its mobile App with over 30% of all UK store transactions now taking place via App and over 2 million people now using it in the UK. The Nero App has an important feature in that it is accepted across all major territories where Caffè Nero operates, including the UK, US, Ireland, Turkey, Poland and Sweden. One Nero App works everywhere for Caffè Nero.

Between June and September 2022, Caffè Nero also continued the expansion of its Delivery sales in the UK, adding Just Eat as a delivery partner to join Uber Eats, driving growth in delivery sales during the same period by 10%.

Despite the strong progress the company has made during the current financial year, substantial economic headwinds have emerged during recent weeks suggesting the business faces a challenging winter ahead. Nonetheless, Caffè Nero’s strong new partnership collaborations will assist it in getting through this period. These partnerships include Compare The Market, Vitality,”3” and, the recently announced, Waitrose tie-up.

Caffè Nero Founder and Group CEO, Gerry Ford commented: “We’ve seen a very encouraging first quarter of sales. Customers really embraced our new range of Iced Drinks during the hot summer with sales up 55% LFL, the Iced Pistachio Latte being particularly popular. We also saw very strong coffee sales throughout and growth in food attachment. Despite the challenging conditions the whole country is facing, I’m confident we can have a successful autumn and winter and capitalise on strong new brand partnerships, an exciting festive menu and our new store openings programme.”