A UK town has suffered a blow to its high street as a decade-old coffee shop shuts down. Costa Coffee has confirmed the closure of its franchised Stockton branch on 39 High Street in County Durham. It will open for the last time at the end of May. The announcement comes less than three years after the Costa store down the road closed in December 2022.
A spokesman for the coffee chain, which has over 4,000 branches across the UK, said all staff members will be given the chance to be relocated to one of the nearby stores. The reason for closure has not been released but the spokesman said: “We can confirm that our franchise-owned and operated Costa Coffee store on 39 High Street, Stockton, will close for trade on May 31. All team members will be offered the opportunity to be relocated to local stores. The local community can continue to enjoy their favourite Costa coffee at nearby stores.”
Although there are a number of Costa Express machines in the town centre, locals will now have to travel two miles to get to the next store with locations at Teesside Park, Portrack Lane, Yarm, or North Tees Hospital.
The high street shop has already gone up for rent, with a price of £1,792 per calendar month or £21,500 per annum. A listing on Rightmove says: “The property to let is situated on the High Street in Stockton Town Centre.
“The property is at the heart of the new public realm and proposed sports facilities following the demolition of the Castlegate Shopping Centre.”
This comes after the chain announced other branches would close earlier this year, including Lyndhurst in the New Forest and King Street in Bridlington.
In 2024, Costa closed a number of branches including Fleet Walk in Burnley, King Street in Bridlington, Alexandra Retail Park in Stoke-on-Trent, and Inglis Street in Inverness.
Costa is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world and the largest in the UK, with over 4,000 branches and 14,000 coffee machines.
The British company is followed by British-owned Greggs in second and American-owned Starbucks in third, with 2,610 and 1,354 outlets respectively. Costa reportedly maintains a 26% share of the UK coffee shop market.