Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 5, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba S E A R C H R E A L E S TAT E F O R S A L E I N A N D A R O U N D W I N N I P E G , M A N I TO B A homes.winnip egfreepress.com New Homes • Resale Homes • Open Houses • News • Agents • Parade of Homes LISTINGS REAL ESTATE email: repics@winnipegfreepress.com or call: 204.697.7100 Wednesday, noon deadline Call now to place your Real Estate picture listing ad Condo Open House Saturday, September 6th from 12-2pm 201-785 St. Anne's Road Charlene Urbanski 204 612-6655 Aleethia Mackay 204 798-5312 lifestylesrealestate.ca Lifestyles Real Estate Welcome to Riverside Estates nestled close to the Seine River! This well kept spacious condo offers 1,180 sq.ft, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, insuite laundry, large dining room, bright kitchen and living room with patio doors to your own balcony! Unit comes with 1 indoor parking spot, storage, lots of visitor parking and RV parking too! 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It was part of Coca-Cola’s quest to become a “total beverage company” and offer every kind of drink. “What we get with Costa is more than just a brand,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy said during a 2018 earnings call, shortly after the company said it would buy Costa Coffee. “It’s a platform that will give us the ability to scale within the $500 billion global hot bev- erage category.” But six years later, it appears Coca- Cola’s investment has fallen flat. The company is working with investment bank Lazard to explore options for Cos- ta Coffee, including a potential sale, British news organization Sky News first reported. Quincy said in a July earnings call Costa Coffee is “not where we wanted it to be from an investment hypothesis point of view” and the company was “reflecting on what we’ve learned.” It’s not clear yet if a deal for Cos- ta Coffee could happen. A Coca-Cola spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on “market rumours or speculation.” Lazard didn’t respond to a request for comment. Costa Coffee might not be well-known to many in U.S. It was founded in Lon- don in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa. Today, it has a pres- ence in 50 countries, with about 2,800 coffee shops in the United Kingdom and Ireland and about 1,400 elsewhere, including the U.S. In buying Costa Coffee, Coca-Cola saw the opportunity to control a cof- fee supply chain and enter a big global market, said Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of industry publication Beverage Digest. But the deal was about much more than owning coffee shops. Quincy said in earnings calls Coca-Cola planned to grow the business through vending ma- chines, at-home products and canned drinks. Coke also sells Costa products to restaurant customers. “There are a lot of ways to work with immediate consumption customers to bring a coffee offering,” Quincy said during a 2018 conference call. “Then there’s the at-home market, whether that be pods, capsules, loose beans.” Costa Coffee in 2022 began opening its first U.S. coffee shops in Coca-Cola’s hometown. The first location opened at the Coda building in Midtown’s Tech- nology Square, near the company’s Atlanta headquarters. Other locations include the Lee + White project in the West End, Town Brookhaven, Howell Mill Road in West Midtown and the Em- ory University campus. Atlanta resident Marco Jovanovich, who is originally from Italy, said he was pleased to see Costa Coffee open in Atlanta. “I was like, ‘Good, there’s a European coffee shop concept I like,’ ” said Jovan- ovich, senior director of product mar- keting for Middleby Outdoor. “I person- ally hate Starbucks.” But Stanford said Coca-Cola only dabbled in U.S. retail locations. “It’s never really gotten past a test and learn phase,” he said. “Getting people to either drop Starbucks or their local coffee shop to go for a concept that they’re not familiar with, unless they’re from Europe, is challenging.” Soon after Coca-Cola purchased Cos- ta Coffee, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Extended lockdowns in the United Kingdom closed retail stores, with Quincy saying in a 2020 earnings call it was “one of the most affected parts” of the company. “The reality is the timing was very unfortunate, getting it just before the pandemic,” Quincy said during a 2022 earnings call. “Despite all the experi- mentation, despite all the learning, de- spite all the initial steps, in big strategic terms, we haven’t advanced because es- sentially COVID put it on hold for three years.” Stanford said when Costa Coffee’s retail business “evaporated” during the pandemic, it didn’t yet have an estab- lished at-home business. “They really couldn’t take advantage of people being at home during COVID the way Keurig could,” he said, refer- ring to the company that makes sin- gle-serve brewing systems. The health crisis “basically put a big hole right in the middle of their plan and they’ve just not recovered since.” Following the pandemic, Costa Cof- fee’s margins were under pressure because of surging coffee prices, said Garrett Nelson, vice-president and sen- ior equity analyst at CFRA Research. For consumers, the average price for ground roast coffee was more than US$8 per pound in July 2025, ac- cording to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. In July 2020, it was about US$4.50 a pound. Plus, following the pandemic, “con- sumers have been much more price sensitive as their discretionary spend- ing has been pressured by inflation,” Nelson said. Jonathan Silver, founder of coffee and tea distributor Atlanta Coffee Supply Group, which was recently acquired, said the coffee industry “changed dra- matically” for him after the pandemic as the costs to run a restaurant soared and dining preferences shifted. “It’s just harder to run a restaurant now,” Silver said. “Food costs are high. Rent is incredibly high. Insurance is very high. Getting good staff is diffi- cult. It’s a confluence of issues.” Consumer tastes are also evolving, especially among younger people, Stan- ford said. Matcha has grown in popu- larity as an alternative to coffee, as have low-calorie energy drinks such as Alani Nu and Celsius. “You had some siphoning of the cof- fee habit with young consumers into healthier, better-for-you, energy,” Stan- ford said. Investment groups are now circling Costa Coffee, according to reports from Sky News and Financial Times, which cite unnamed individuals. Private equity firm TDR Capital, the majority owner of supermarket chain Asda, is exploring an acquisi- tion, according to the Financial Times. U.S. private equity firm Apollo Global Management is also interested, accord- ing to Sky News. TDR Capital declined comment. Apollo did not respond to a request for comment. Costa Coffee could sell at a discount to what Coca-Cola paid to acquire it, Sky News reported, with a potential price tag under US$2.7 billion. But it’s not known yet if Coca-Cola will decide to sell or, if it does, whether it would re- tain a stake in the company. Though, under Quincy’s leadership, Coca-Cola has been “cutting bait” on brands that don’t work, Stanford said. Coca-Cola has a portfolio of US$30 billion brands. With its acquisitions, the company aims to connect with consum- er needs, but “part of it is to be also very transparent about what didn’t work,” Henrique Braun, Coca-Cola chief oper- ating officer, said Wednesday. In 2020, the company said it re- duced its portfolio from 400 brands to 200 brands. More recently, Coca-Cola phased out Aha sparkling water to focus on the popular Topo Chico brand, Stanford said. “You’re seeing a company that’s more willing to take these big bets,” Stanford said. “But then, if it’s not working or consumer winds change … they’ll cut it and move on.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution AMY WENK DREAMSTIME / TNS FILES Coca-Cola acquired British brand Costa Coffee in 2019 as part of Coke’s quest to become a ‘total beverage company.’ Huawei unveils new trifold phone in show of hardware strength HUAWEI Technologies Co. intro- duced an update to its ground- breaking trifold phone on Thurs- day, iterating on a novel form factor and underscoring its hardware en- gineering capabilities. The new Mate XTs has two fold- ing mechanisms, allowing it to work as either a regular smart- phone or two variations of iPad- like tablets. It is Huawei’s second effort at a two-fold device, after last year’s Mate XT, which was unveiled mere hours after Apple Inc.’s fall iPhone lineup. Huawei is Apple’s strongest rival in China’s premium mobile arena and its Mate series has re- claimed much lost ground in re- cent years. That’s been driven by its breakthrough made-in-China chipmaking, and the Mate XTs is built around its latest Kirin 9020 processor. Shenzhen-based Huawei priced the XTs at 17,999 yuan (about US$2,500), down from last year’s US$2,800 sticker, and detailed its improvements via a live-streamed event from its home city. The device can open to a 10.2-inch screen at its fullest extension, consumer busi- ness chief Richard Yu said on stage. “The only one that can beat Huawei on trifold phones is Huawei,” Yu said, adding the com- pany has mastered the mass pro- duction of such hardware and now offers a choice of four colours, two more than the first generation. Huawei touted new PC-like ex- periences on the device, better tak- ing advantage of its larger dimen- sions, with some workplace apps developed for PC running on the phone. Users can also more easily switch between apps when multi- tasking or see apps side by side when they unfold the phone. Now running Huawei’s in-house HarmonyOS, the Mate XTs is another step in the Chinese com- pany’s departure from Google’s Android software. Android has for years struggled to keep up with Apple’s more refined iPadOS for larger-screen devices, though HarmonyOS may have a better shot at delivering a compelling user experience within China due to Huawei’s strong links with local software providers. The foldable market rebounded with 45 per cent growth in the June quarter, Counterpoint’s market data showed. — Bloomberg News ;