OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 March 2008 was announced, that Costa and OJSC Rosinter Restaurants Holding (Rosinter) opened Costa’s 1,000th store in Moscow’s Pushkin Square, the first Costa store to be opened in Russia within the bounds of the new Joint Venture.

Costa is the UK’s largest and fastest growing coffee shop chain and plans to open its 700th milestone UK store next month. It now operates over 300 stores overseas in 22 countries (Europe, the Middle East, China and India).

Rosinter is the leading casual dining restaurant chain in Russia and CIS, operating 232 restaurants in 8 countries and 25 cities (31st of December, 2007).

The new joint venture plans to open 200 Costa stores in Russia over next 5 years, focusing on Moscow and Saint Petersburg in its first year, then expanding to other Russian regions thereafter. The partners’ initial investment is approximately 10 million dollars USA. The partners also intend to open Costa stores in Ukraine and Belarus at a later date. After this first opening, the Joint Venture will start to re-brand the 11 outlets currently operated by Rosinter under its proprietary brand Moka Loka in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

John Derkach, Managing Director, Costa Ltd said: “Costa’s arrival in Russia is another milestone on our journey to become a global coffee brand. Rosinter is an ideal partner who brings a wealth of market insight, which will help us to expand quickly, whilst making sure we deliver what Russian customers want. We have studied Russian tastes and have already expanded our cake range. We also work at introducing a selection of coffee with alcohol.”

Rosinter Restaurants Holding OJSC Chairman of the Board Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanaevsky Blanco added: “We want to provide Moscow citizens and guests of the capital with a good knowledge of this strong brand, which has built an unrivalled reputation for coffee excellence. We are glad to announce that we will be opening soon our second store in Moscow on Bolshaya Akademicheskaya Str. Our development will be supported by a strong platform that we have already established in a very short period combining the strength and expertise of our two organizations".