Costa Coffee

Key Findings

• Settlements: Coca-Cola’s independent Israeli licensee, Central Bottling Company (CBC), operates a distribution centre and cooling facilities in the Atarot Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem; no evidence establishes Costa-specific use of that facility.¹
• Economic: CBC’s Tabor Winery sources grapes from settlements in the West Bank and occupied Golan Heights, while CBC’s Tara Dairy operates a farm in Shadmot Mehola; these are CBC-group activities, not Costa Coffee operations.²
• Political: CBC donated 50,000 shekels to Im Tirtzu in 2015, before Coca-Cola acquired Costa in 2019; no analogous post-acquisition Costa donation was identified.³
• Not found: No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee contracts with Israeli military, intelligence, police, or security bodies, or of Costa-operated retail, distribution, or technology infrastructure in Israel or the occupied territories.⁴

Target Profile

Key Facts:

• Costa was founded in London in 1971 and is not Israeli-founded, headquartered, or tax-resident.⁶
• CBC is a privately held Coca-Cola franchisee controlled by the Wertheim family; it is structurally independent of Costa Coffee.¹
• No public evidence identified that Costa-branded products are distributed by CBC or through CBC’s Atarot facility.⁹

Executive Summary

Costa Coffee is a UK coffee business wholly owned by The Coca-Cola Company. The audit record does not establish Costa-operated stores, offices, warehouses, support centres, Costa Express machines, packaged-coffee launches, or ready-to-drink distribution in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It also does not establish that Costa products pass through Coca-Cola’s Israeli franchisee, Central Bottling Company (CBC), or CBC’s Atarot distribution centre.⁹

The strongest documented nexus is therefore indirect and corporate-family-adjacent rather than Costa-specific. CBC, which is an independent Israeli licensee of Coca-Cola trademarks, operates a regional distribution centre and cooling houses in the Atarot Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem. Who Profits also documents CBC’s majority-owned Tabor Winery as sourcing grapes from settlements in the West Bank and occupied Golan Heights, and identifies Tara Dairy as operating a farm in Shadmot Mehola in the occupied Jordan Valley.^{1, 2} These findings concern CBC and its subsidiaries; they do not demonstrate that Costa Coffee uses, owns, controls, or benefits from those operations.

At the parent-company level, Coca-Cola has maintained an Israeli startup-commercialisation programme, “The Bridge,” in Tel Aviv, and CBC separately invested $2 million in Israeli cultivated-dairy startup BioMilk. Costa’s general technology stack also includes Israeli-founded NiCE contact-centre software and TechSee visual-assistance software for Costa Express support. These are customer-service and commercial-technology relationships, not evidence of Israeli state, military, intelligence, surveillance, or Project Nimbus participation by Costa.^{10, 11}

The military record is notably negative: no public evidence identified of Costa Coffee contracts, procurement, supply, logistics, dual-use products, weapons activity, export licensing, or services for Israeli military, police, prison, intelligence, or security institutions. The allegation that Tara Dairy supplies IDF bases through the Shekem canteen system remained unverified. A claimed Costa–Strauss partnership was also unsupported and is not relied upon.⁴

Civil-society campaigns have nevertheless targeted Costa as part of Coca-Cola’s portfolio. The BDS National Committee added Coca-Cola to its priority boycott list in late 2024, citing CBC’s Atarot operation, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign subsequently included Costa Coffee in its “Don’t Buy Apartheid” campaign.¹² Under the fixed, human-vetted V6 assessment, Costa Coffee receives a BRS score of 226, placing it in Tier D (Moderate Complicity). The score reflects documented indirect economic and political nexus evidence, while preserving the absence of verified Costa-specific military activity and the limits of parent/licensee attribution.

Timeline of Relevant Events

Corporate Overview

Costa Limited is a UK private company controlled by The Coca-Cola Company, which acquired Costa in January 2019. Coca-Cola’s reporting continues to identify Costa Limited as a United Kingdom subsidiary. Costa’s non-ready-to-drink business is reported within Coca-Cola’s Europe, Middle East and Africa segment, while ready-to-drink activity is reported through applicable geographic operating segments.^{5, 7}

Costa’s Israeli nexus should not be conflated with CBC’s separate franchise structure. CBC describes itself as Coca-Cola’s exclusive franchisee in Israel and manufactures and markets specified Coca-Cola brands there. Its public brand catalogues reviewed in the audit do not list Costa, and no primary franchise agreement, trademark licence, distributor appointment, Israeli store locator, retailer catalogue, customs record, or corporate launch notice was found connecting Costa-branded products to CBC.⁹

CBC is privately held and controlled by the Wertheim family. Who Profits identifies David Wertheim as holding 62.99%, with Reuven Becher, Gil Orion, and Chen Amir each identified at 12.33%, and identifies Central Beverage Distribution Company and Tabor Winery among the group’s subsidiaries. These ownership details are specialist civil-society research findings rather than a retrieved company-registry filing.^{1, 2}

The Coca-Cola Company’s Tel Aviv “Bridge” programme is a parent-level startup-commercialisation initiative. Available material describes marketing mentorship and pilot access for startups without equity investment; no source establishes that Costa Coffee participated in or benefited from it.¹⁰

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of contracts, tenders, framework agreements, memoranda of understanding, catering, beverage supply, logistics, or other commercial arrangements between Costa Coffee or Coca-Cola and the Israeli Ministry of Defence, IDF, Israel Prison Service, Border Police, intelligence services, or another Israeli security body.⁴

No public evidence identified that Costa or CBC manufactures, markets, exports, or supplies tactical, ruggedised, dual-use, defence-grade, weapons, munitions, strategic-platform, or military-infrastructure products. No public evidence identified of Costa or CBC supplying Israeli defence primes, including Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, or IMI Systems.⁴

The audit recorded an alleged Tara Dairy supply relationship with the IDF’s Shekem military-canteen system, but it could not verify the allegation through a named primary source, procurement record, corporate filing, or contemporaneous news report. It remains unverified and is excluded as established military involvement.¹

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Costa’s civilian consumer-coffee business model is inconsistent with the claimed military mechanisms, and the audit found no direct defence contracting or military service relationship. CBC’s Atarot facility is adjacent to the former Atarot Airport site, which was reportedly used by the IDF during the Second Intifada, but that historical airport-site fact does not link CBC’s facility to IDF base services.¹

Costa’s use of NiCE customer-contact technology is not treated as Military involvement. Although NiCE has Israeli origins and historical links to communications-interception products, Costa’s identified use is a UK contact-centre application whose designed output does not produce a targeting decision or weapons effect.¹⁵

Named Entities and Evidence Map

• Costa Coffee / Costa Limited: No public evidence identified of military or security contracts.⁴
• The Coca-Cola Company: No public evidence identified of Costa-relevant military procurement or arms activity.⁴
• CBC / Central Beverage Distribution Company: Settlement-linked commercial infrastructure documented; no verified military-contract evidence.¹
• Tara Dairy: Alleged IDF Shekem supply is unverified.¹

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Costa’s UK contact centre uses NiCE alongside RingCentral, and TechSee provides video-based remote troubleshooting for Costa Express machines. NiCE is Israeli-founded; TechSee is an Israeli-founded visual-assistance company. The evidence characterises both as peripheral customer-facing support functions, not core security or sovereign infrastructure.¹⁵

Costa migrated core systems to AWS through UK partner ANS Group. AWS is separately a Project Nimbus co-contractor with the Israeli government, but no evidence identifies Costa’s tenancy as using Nimbus infrastructure, Israeli AWS regions, or Israeli state cloud services.¹⁶ Costa’s UK stores also use Cisco Meraki networking through Exponential-e; Cisco’s separate Israeli military and police business does not establish a link to Costa’s specific UK deployment.¹⁷

No public evidence identified of Costa operating Israeli data centres, participating directly in Project Nimbus, providing data-residency services to Israeli state bodies, operating Israeli R&D facilities, or deploying Israeli-origin biometric, predictive-policing, social-monitoring, or surveillance tools.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

The identified digital relationships are ordinary enterprise-consumer relationships. Costa is a technology customer, not a provider of cloud, surveillance, cyber, intelligence, or security technology to Israeli institutions. Vendor-level conduct by AWS or Cisco cannot be attributed transitively to Costa without evidence connecting Costa’s own tenancy or deployment to those contracts.^{16, 17}

Costa’s 2013 facial-recognition kiosk was built by US company Bsquare and was described as generating anonymised aggregate demographic estimates, rather than identity matching. The vendor for newer “AI kiosk” machines was not established; its origin is therefore unresolved rather than evidence either of or against an Israeli nexus.¹⁸

Named Entities and Evidence Map

• NiCE: Israeli-founded contact-centre software used by Costa’s UK contact centre.¹⁵
• TechSee: Israeli-founded visual-assistance vendor supporting Costa Express troubleshooting.¹⁵
• AWS / ANS Group: Costa cloud migration; AWS’s Nimbus role is corporate-level and not shown to extend to Costa’s tenancy.¹⁶
• Cisco Meraki / Exponential-e: UK-store network deployment; no evidence links it to Cisco’s Israeli state contracts.¹⁷

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

CBC’s Central Beverage Distribution Company operates a regional distribution centre and cooling houses in the Atarot Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem. The audit treats this as current settlement-enterprise evidence concerning CBC, not Costa Coffee.¹ Tabor Winery, 92.5% owned by CBC, sources grapes from vineyards in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and the occupied Golan Heights settlements of Ortal and Keshet.² Tara Dairy, another CBC subsidiary, operates a farm in Shadmot Mehola.¹

At the parent level, Coca-Cola’s Tel Aviv Bridge programme connects Israeli startups with commercialisation support. CBC’s BioMilk investment is a separate Israeli food-biotechnology investment. Neither record establishes a Costa-specific Israeli R&D operation or investment.^{10, 11}

No public evidence identified of Costa sourcing Israeli agricultural goods, importing settlement goods, owning Israeli factories or real estate, holding Israeli sovereign debt or Israel Bonds, or reporting Costa-specific Israeli-market revenue.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

CBC is an independent, privately held licensee rather than a Costa Coffee subsidiary or Coca-Cola Company-owned Israeli subsidiary. CBC profits are not stated to be part of Coca-Cola’s or Costa’s consolidated financials. The evidence does not establish that Costa products are sold in Israel, use CBC distribution, or generate revenue through the Atarot facility.^{1, 9}

The record also distinguishes the Wertheim family’s external holdings from Costa. David Wertheim’s reported shared controlling stake in Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot - an institution documented in settlement financing - does not itself establish Costa ownership, financing, or operational involvement with that bank.¹⁹

Named Entities and Evidence Map

• CBC: Independent Coca-Cola licensee; Atarot distribution operation.¹
• Tabor Winery: CBC-controlled winery with documented settlement-vineyard sourcing.²
• Tara Dairy: CBC subsidiary with a Shadmot Mehola farm.¹
• BioMilk: $2 million CBC food-biotechnology investment; not defence technology.¹¹
• Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot: Settlement-finance findings concern the bank and Wertheim-family ownership, not Costa.¹⁹

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

No standalone Costa Coffee statement on Israel/Palestine was identified. Coca-Cola’s corporate FAQs state that it does not fund military operations, rejects claims that its income is transferred to Israel, and does not support any country, government, political belief, or religious belief.²⁰

CBC donated 50,000 shekels to Im Tirtzu in 2015. Reporting described Im Tirtzu as a right-wing Zionist advocacy organisation and characterised the donation as support for Zionist interests and IDF soldiers. This was a CBC-level donation before Coca-Cola acquired Costa and does not establish a Costa or Coca-Cola-parent donation.³

The BDS National Committee placed Coca-Cola on its priority boycott list in late 2024, citing CBC’s Atarot operation and imagery of soldiers receiving Coca-Cola products. The PSC’s 2025 campaign named Costa Coffee as part of the Coca-Cola portfolio. These are civil-society campaign positions, not findings that Costa itself operated in settlements or supplied the military.¹²

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of Costa or Coca-Cola donations to FIDF, JNF/KKL, or another named military-welfare or settlement organisation. Reporting on products received by more than 100,000 soldiers concerned a civilian volunteer initiative, not a verified official corporate product donation by Coca-Cola.²¹

Coca-Cola’s aggregate US PAC contributions and lobbying expenditures are documented, but no public evidence identified tying the reviewed disclosures to Israel/Palestine legislation, anti-boycott laws, or trade policy. No public evidence identified of Costa executives’ personal donations, statements, or affiliations concerning Israel/Palestine, FIDF, JNF, or settlement organisations.²²

Named Entities and Evidence Map

• Costa Coffee: No standalone conflict statement or identified direct political donation.²⁰
• The Coca-Cola Company: General neutrality and no-military-funding FAQ statements; no established Costa-specific policy nexus.²⁰
• CBC: 2015 Im Tirtzu donation.³
• Im Tirtzu: Civil advocacy organisation; not a defence contractor.³
• PSC / BDS National Committee: Campaign organisations that have targeted Coca-Cola and Costa as a portfolio brand.¹²

Complicity Index Score

Method: V6

• V_MAX: 2.51 Avg_OTHERS: 1.01
• BRS Score: 226 Tier: D (Moderate Complicity)

Economic is the highest domain because the evidence record documents CBC’s settlement-linked distribution and subsidiary sourcing operations, while retaining the distinction between CBC and Costa. Political reflects documented campaign scrutiny and the historical CBC donation; Military remains zero because the audit found no verified military nexus.

The V6 method is scale-free and evidence-only. These fixed scores reflect human-vetted evaluation of activity type, scale, directness, attribution, and evidence limits; they do not convert unverified or wrong-entity allegations into established conduct.

Methodology Note

• This dossier relies only on the four supplied domain audits and their cited source record.
• Impact measures the documented activity type; M measures scale; P measures directness. Scores are not a measure of moral intent or a substitute for primary-source verification.
• Operations that are divested, exited, historical, or pre-acquisition are mitigated in attribution. CBC’s 2015 Im Tirtzu donation predates Coca-Cola’s 2019 Costa acquisition.
• Entity attribution is not transitive: CBC’s operations, the Wertheim family’s holdings, and vendor-level conduct are not automatically Costa Coffee conduct.
• Settlement operations may bear on both Economic and Political, but Costa-specific involvement requires Costa-specific evidence.
• “No public evidence identified” records the result of the audits’ checks; it does not prove that an activity has never occurred.