The coffee business is dominated by a relatively small number of large companies. If you're looking for a cup of coffee, at least in most smaller cities, your choices are most likely to be Starbucks, Costa Coffee (in the EU and the Middle East) or Caffe Nero if you're in the UK, Turkey or the United Arab Emirates and probably not much else. Of course, the multinational coffee chains do have their fans and depending on your taste in coffee, don't necessarily pour a bad cup. There are coffee drinkers who eschew the chains in favor of their local cafes, either out of a genuine preference for the coffee and/or cafe experience of the smaller establishments or pure coffee snobbery.
When it comes to coffee chains, Starbucks is the biggest name in the business. Founded in Seattle, Starbucks now has locations all over the US as well as seemingly almost everywhere else in the world. With locations on every continent except for Antarctica, Starbucks single-handedly leads the industry. The chain began as a just one coffee shop, but now operates its own large scale roasting operation, with its coffees available in grocery stores in many countries as well as at their coffee shop locations.
Costa Coffee is a UK based chain founded by two brothers from Italy who created their own slow roasted, full flavored blend which they call mocha Italia. The Costa Coffee brand experience is based on the "Italianness" of the company's coffee, an idea which extends through the decor of Costa's coffee shops as well as the flavor of the product itself. Of course, there are many who would say that Costa is designed to appeal to the tastes of British, not Italian consumers and is no more Italian than Papa John's. However, it's undeniable that Costa is one of the UK's most popular coffee shop chains.
Caffe Nero is another UK based coffee chain which has recently begun to expand internationally with new locations in Turkey and the UAE. With a menu largely consisting of espresso-based beverages as well as a new cold coffee drink and flavored coffee range, the chain is popular at home and starting to grow abroad as well.
Started in the US but now entirely Australian-owned and having about half of their locations in the country as well, Gloria Jean's has locations in more than 30 countries. The company has been criticized for the high sugar content of many of their drinks and their failure to supply nutritional information to their customers.
These companies are just a few of the multinational coffee chains, with much of the global market consisting of local and national chains such as Scotland's Beanscene, Café Trieste in the US and Barista and Café Coffee Day in India. Even though these are not global players on the kind of scale represented by Starbucks, these companies emphasize quality in order to help gain a dominant share of the market in their area.
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