Costa Coffee POLITICAL

Target: Costa Coffee / Costa Limited
Audit phase: Political

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

No standalone public statement by Costa Coffee itself on the Israel-Palestine conflict has been identified in the reviewed materials; the corporate-level commentary identified in this audit originates from parent The Coca-Cola Company rather than the Costa brand.^{1, 2, 3} no public evidence identified of a Costa-branded statement on the conflict.

The Coca-Cola Company’s corporate FAQs state that it does not fund military operations in any country, reject claims that its income is transferred to Israel, and describe the company as not supporting any country, government, political belief, or religious belief.^{1, 2}

Coca-Cola publicly suspended business operations in Russia on 8 March 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.⁴ No equivalent operational suspension or solidarity statement toward Palestinian civilians was identified in the reviewed materials following the October 2023 Gaza war; contemporaneous reporting characterized Coca-Cola as silent on the Israel attacks despite its prior social-justice positioning.⁵

At the January 2024 Davos summit, CEO James Quincey responded to a question about whether Coca-Cola was “pro-Israeli” by referring to the company’s “Israeli bottler” and “a bottler in Gaza,” framing the position through the company’s operations rather than a substantive human-rights position.³

In October–November 2023, Coca-Cola removed website references to its 2020 $500,000 Sprite donation to Black Lives Matter after backlash concerning pro-Palestinian content posted by a Black Lives Matter chapter; Senator Ted Cruz publicly requested an explanation.⁶ This was a political-repositioning episode adjacent to, rather than a direct statement on, Israel-Palestine.⁶

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee or Coca-Cola framing Israeli or Palestinian market operations as a distinctive geopolitical partnership in the reviewed annual-reporting or public-relations materials.^{7, 8, 9, 10}

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

The previously stated proposition that Coca-Cola brands “including Costa Coffee” are distributed in Israel exclusively through CBC is not supported by the reviewed evidence and is withdrawn.^{11, 12, 13, 7, 10, 14, 15} CBC’s own history describes it as Coca-Cola’s exclusive franchisee in Israel and states that it manufactures and markets Coca-Cola Company brands there, but it does not identify Costa Coffee.¹⁰

No public evidence identified that Costa Coffee products are or were distributed in Israel by CBC, including through CBC’s Atarot facility.^{13, 7, 10, 14, 15} CBC’s current public brands catalogue and its sales-and-distribution brand-sites page do not list Costa, while Coca-Cola Israel’s company profile enumerates Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Fanta, Fuze Tea, and Kinley Soda without Costa.^{13, 7, 14} These page-scoped omissions do not establish that Costa products have never been sold in Israel through another channel.^{13, 7, 14}

Costa Coffee Professional’s current purchasing page identifies bottling partners and served markets but does not name Israel or CBC; it also states that availability varies by country.¹⁵ The omission does not prove non-distribution, but it does not establish Costa distribution by CBC.¹⁵

No public evidence identified of a primary CBC franchise agreement, Costa trademark licence, distributor agreement, product listing, Israeli store locator, retailer catalogue, customs record, or corporate announcement connecting Costa-branded products to CBC.^{13, 7, 10, 14, 15} no public evidence identified of a Costa retail-store, Costa Express, Costa Professional machine, packaged-coffee, pod, or ready-to-drink launch in Israel in the reviewed materials.^{13, 7, 10, 14, 15}

CBC’s wholly owned subsidiary, Central Beverage Distribution Company, operates a regional distribution centre and cooling houses in the Atarot Industrial Zone in occupied East Jerusalem, on land reported as expropriated in 1970 from the Palestinian village of Beit Hanina.^{11, 16, 17} This evidence concerns CBC’s Coca-Cola-franchisee group and does not establish Costa-specific use of the facility.^{11, 17, 13, 7, 14}

CBC’s 92.5%-owned subsidiary Tabor Winery produces wine from grapes sourced from vineyards identified in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank and the Ortal and Keshet settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.¹² This finding concerns a CBC subsidiary and does not establish a Costa Coffee operational connection.^{12, 13, 7}

The Palestinian National Beverage Company is a separate Coca-Cola franchisee founded by Zahi Khouri; it bottled Coca-Cola products in the West Bank from the late 1990s and opened a $20 million bottling plant in Gaza in December 2016, reportedly directly employing about 120 people and supporting roughly 1,200 indirectly through its value chain.^{18, 19} This separate franchise relationship does not establish Costa operations in Gaza or Israel.^{18, 19, 13}

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights maintains a database of enterprises involved in specified settlement-related activities, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 31/36 and 53/25; the database was updated in September 2025.^{20, 21, 22} Search-based review did not identify Coca-Cola, Costa Coffee, or CBC by name in the available database summaries, although direct line-by-line confirmation was not achieved.^{20, 21, 22}

Civil-society and boycott-campaign attention to Coca-Cola’s Israeli-franchisee operations has been extensive.^{16, 23, 24, 25} The BDS National Committee added Coca-Cola to its priority-boycott list in late 2024, citing the Atarot distribution centre and imagery of Israeli soldiers receiving Coca-Cola products during the Gaza war.^{16, 25} In March 2025, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign named Coca-Cola’s portfolio, explicitly including Costa Coffee, among targets of its “Don’t Buy Apartheid” campaign.^{23, 24} Local UK boycott activity also targeted Costa Coffee retail locations, including a reported April 2024 action in Macclesfield.²⁶

Coca-Cola did not announce a divestment from or alteration of CBC’s Atarot operations in the reviewed materials.^{11, 16, 17} In June 2024, Coca-Cola withdrew for approximately five hours and then reinstated a Bangladesh advertisement referring to a “Coke factory” in Palestine after backlash; reporting connected the reference to the Atarot facility.^{27, 28, 29, 30} Reporting also described boycott-linked sales or market-share effects in Bangladesh, Turkey, and Pakistan, while Coca-Cola’s Q3 2024 release reported a 2% unit-case-volume decline in Europe, Middle East and Africa without attributing that decline to boycotts.^{27, 31, 32}

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee, distinct from parent Coca-Cola or CBC, being named as a defendant or subject in a legal or regulatory action tied to occupied-territory operations.

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

No public evidence identified of HR actions, disciplinary measures, or legal proceedings specifically involving Costa Coffee staff and pro-Palestinian speech, symbols, or union activity.

No public evidence identified regarding platform or editorial moderation policy, as Costa Coffee is not identified in the reviewed evidence as operating a content or algorithmic platform relevant to Israel-Palestine speech moderation.

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee-specific product-labelling or sourcing controversies tied to Israeli settlements.^{14, 15} Costa’s reviewed purchasing material describes international availability through bottling partners but does not identify an Israel or Palestine supply-chain nexus.¹⁵

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee using military heritage, defence-sector ties, or state-security origins in its commercial branding. Costa Coffee’s founding narrative describes Bruno and Sergio Costa, Italian immigrant brothers, beginning a London coffee-roasting wholesale business in 1971.^{33, 14}

At the Israeli-franchisee level, CBC founder Moshe “Muzi” Wertheim was reported to have been a former Mossad intelligence officer and Palmach veteran, and to have founded CBC with American investor Abraham Feinberg in 1967.³⁴ Wertheim was also reported to have supported the Jabotinsky Institute and approached it, as Coca-Cola Israel chairman, concerning republication of a historical text in modern Hebrew.³⁵

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee accepting Israeli state honours, hosting government officials, entering formal partnerships with Israeli state or academic institutions, or sponsoring “Brand Israel”-type cultural or public-relations campaigns.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

In a 24 July 2015 letter, Coca-Cola assured the Anti-Defamation League that it did not support, endorse, or sanction the BDS movement, responding to ADL concern over public BDS advocacy by Zahi Khouri, head of Coca-Cola’s Palestinian franchisee.³⁶ In 2015, the Zionist Organization of America publicly criticized Coca-Cola over its Palestinian franchisee’s BDS-supportive statements, and reporting described an Israeli NGO’s threatened legal action over the same issue.^{37, 38}

The Coca-Cola Company Nonpartisan Committee for Good Government has been FEC-registered since 17 May 1976.³⁹ During the 2024 election cycle, Coca-Cola PAC contributions totalled $1,367,724 and reported federal lobbying expenditure was $4,930,000.^{40, 41} no public evidence identified linking the reviewed aggregate PAC or lobbying disclosures to Israel-Palestine legislation, anti-boycott legislation, or trade policy.^{40, 41, 39}

CBC donated 50,000 shekels to Im Tirtzu in 2015; reporting described the group as characterizing the contribution as support for Zionist interests and IDF soldiers.⁴² This was a CBC-level donation and does not establish a Coca-Cola-parent or Costa Coffee donation.⁴²

No public evidence identified of a Coca-Cola- or Costa Coffee-level donation to FIDF, JNF/KKL, or another named military-welfare or settlement organisation.^{42, 1, 43} No direct, attributable Coca-Cola corporate product donation to IDF soldiers during the post-October 2023 war was identified; reporting on “Operation Juha” describes a civilian volunteer initiative distributing Bamba and Coca-Cola products to soldiers rather than an official corporate Coca-Cola contribution.⁴³ Coca-Cola’s published position is that it does not fund military operations in any country.¹

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Costa Limited is an active UK private limited company, incorporated on 28 July 1976.^{44, 45} Companies House identifies The Coca-Cola Company as Costa Limited’s sole active person with significant control, notified on 3 January 2019, holding more than 75% of shares and voting rights and the right to appoint or remove directors.⁴⁴ The public PSC record establishes control above that statutory threshold, rather than an exact shareholding percentage.⁴⁴

The Coca-Cola Company completed its $4.9 billion acquisition of Costa from Whitbread on 3 January 2019, and its 2019 Form 10-Q records acquisition and consolidation of Costa Limited.^{46, 13} Coca-Cola’s 2025 reporting continues to list Costa Limited as a United Kingdom subsidiary.⁹

Effective 1 January 2025, Costa’s non-ready-to-drink business has been reported in Coca-Cola’s Europe, Middle East and Africa segment, while Costa ready-to-drink activity is reported in applicable geographic operating segments.^{7, 8, 9} Coca-Cola stated in November 2024 that Costa would remain a stand-alone business, with ready-to-drink businesses outside Europe reporting through local operating units.⁷

No public evidence identified of Costa Coffee’s charter, ownership structure, or founding documents being tied to state geopolitical goals.^{44, 45, 46} No golden-share, state-ownership, or state-mandate structure was identified for Costa Coffee or its Coca-Cola parent.^{44, 45, 9}

Coca-Cola’s general disclosures state that most local bottlers are independent contractors rather than agents and that Coca-Cola does not own, manage, or control most local bottling companies.^{9, 10} Those disclosures, and the general statement in the 2019 Form 10-Q that Costa ready-to-drink products could be marketed through Coca-Cola’s bottling system, do not identify CBC, Israel, a Costa product format, a licence, an agreement term, or exclusivity.^{13, 9, 10}

No public evidence identified of a post-2019 Coca-Cola-CBC contract, trademark licence, product-launch notice, distributor appointment, or renewal expressly covering Costa Coffee in Israel.^{13, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15} Coca-Cola HBC’s statement that it launched and distributes Costa in its own markets illustrates that Costa distribution arrangements may be partner-specific; its listed operations do not include Israel.⁸

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Philippe Schaillee was appointed Global CEO of Costa Coffee in 2023.⁴⁷ no public evidence identified of Schaillee’s, or identified predecessor Costa executives’, personal statements, donations, or board affiliations concerning Israel-Palestine, FIDF, JNF, or settlement organisations.

James Quincey’s identified public comment specific to the Israel-Gaza conflict was the January 2024 Davos exchange referring to an Israeli bottler and a bottler in Gaza.³ no public evidence identified of a signed letter, op-ed, or dedicated conflict statement by Quincey.

CBC’s current corporate page identifies Nir Levinger as CEO.¹⁰ Who Profits identifies CBC ownership as David Wertheim (62.99%), with Reuven Becher, Gil Orion, and Chen Amir each at 12.33%, and identifies CBC subsidiaries including Central Beverage Distribution Company and Tabor Winery.¹¹ These ownership and subsidiary findings remain specialist civil-society findings rather than information confirmed in a retrieved company-registry filing.^{11, 12}

Moshe Wertheim died in 2016; his reported Mossad and Palmach background and Jabotinsky Institute support concern the CBC founder rather than Costa Coffee.^{34, 35} no public evidence identified of David Wertheim’s personal donations to FIDF, JNF, or settlement organisations, or of personal board positions in pro-Israel advocacy organisations, in the reviewed materials.

Costa Coffee’s charitable activity is described in company-linked material as supporting education and coffee-growing-community infrastructure, with no identified Israel or Palestine programme.³³