What Is Behind the High KPIs at Costa Coffee?

A Costa employee's social media post describes store targets that require more than 40 food items sold for every 100 beverages, and says some staff spend their own money to meet them. The same post says benefits have shrunk year by year, with New Year gift boxes limited to candy and chocolate and no 13th-month salary. The complaints drew wide response from workers.

Costa built its reputation in the United Kingdom before expanding into China, where it once competed directly with Starbucks. Former staff quoted in the discussion say the food target used to sit at 30 and now exceeds 40, while store closures, internal management problems and falling customer numbers have added pressure. Resignation talk has grown among employees.

Recently, a post by a Costa employee complaining about excessively high company KPIs sparked heated discussion on social media. The poster pointed out that stores require every 100 beverages sold to be paired with more than 40 food items, forcing some employees to dip into their own pockets to boost performance, jokingly calling it "paying to work." At the same time, employee benefits have shrunk year by year, with New Year gift boxes containing only candy and chocolate, and the 13th-month salary nowhere to be seen. Chaotic internal management, store contractions, and customer attrition have caused this former Starbucks rival to gradually decline in the Chinese market. Workers left comments lamenting that under such pressure, the thought of resigning has grown ever stronger.

▲

Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop

Recently, a Costa employee posted on social media with the title "Costa, treat your employees well," which quickly struck a nerve with many workers.

In the post, the poster listed various grievances with Costa, one of which was the requirement that for every 100 beverages sold, employees must sell more than 40 portions of snacks or food items.

The employee revealed that Costa has now significantly raised store food sales targets, but in reality many stores simply cannot achieve such high KPIs. To complete the tasks assigned by the brand, some employees can only spend their own money to artificially inflate sales, helplessly joking that they have "become pay-to-work employees."

Many workers equally overwhelmed by KPIs resonated deeply, leaving sharp yet resigned comments: "Just sell food and give coffee away for free, why bother making coffee at all," "The points have all been redeemed, and I've spent quite a bit of my own money," "I've stockpiled so many lollipops I can't finish them," "Just turn it into a convenience store."

A veteran employee who had left Costa and returned to work part-time at a store lamented that he had only known the brand had closed quite a few stores in recent years, but after returning he realized that one of the reasons for the closures might be the current chaotic internal management. He recalled that the food KPI "used to be impressive at 30," and never expected it to now exceed 40, saying bluntly that this target puts enormous pressure on current employees.

Besides this outrageous new rule that makes staff feel it is absurd, workers also said that Costa's employee benefits are "getting worse by the day." This past New Year, some employees said they only received New Year gift boxes with chocolate and candy. As for the 13th-month salary that used to be paid, "when you ask, they go silent," leaving hardworking employees quite dissatisfied.

Compared with chains like Starbucks and Tims, Costa's development in recent years has not been smooth. In the public's eyes, Costa's products and store service quality have deteriorated significantly over the past few years. Some loyal customers admit they have long stopped visiting stores because the beverages no longer meet expectations and the service experience is poor, turning instead to lower-priced Manner and Tims, or choosing Starbucks, Peet's, and others at the same price point but with better quality.

Customer attrition has led to poor store sales for Costa. Over the past year, some older stores have quietly closed due to lease expirations, insufficient profitability, and other reasons, causing the number of stores to plummet and making the public's perception of this old British coffee brand increasingly vague. Some coffee newcomers, upon seeing the striking red-and-white sign, don't even know it was once one of Starbucks' old rivals in the Chinese market, showing it has been reduced to what netizens mock as an "ordinary among the crowd" chain brand.

It is precisely because the brand's development in the Chinese market is far worse than before that employees say headquarters can only cut costs and increase revenue: on one hand raising store sales targets and urging staff to recommend higher-margin desserts, snacks, and membership cards to customers, while on the other quietly cutting employee benefits, making people lament that the treatment is far worse than before. So much so that some workers admit that under increasing work pressure, most of them already have thoughts of resigning.

Image source: Internet screenshot

Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the internet, and for some content on the website such as images, we will respect the original copyright and indicate the source. However, due to the large volume, there may be individual images or text that have not been credited in time. Please forgive us. If the original author has any disputes, they can contact the website for handling. Once verified, we will correct it immediately. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop." Please indicate the source when reposting. If there is any infringement, please inform us for removal. Thank you~!

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.