Photo of Costa Coffee: IC

 UK coffee chain Costa has closed about 10 percent of its stores in the Chinese mainland due to falling numbers of consumers, according to media reports, with its business in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province completely withdrawing from the local market.

In Beijing, about 20 Costa branches, out of 100, have been closed, news website 21jingji.com reported. In Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, one third of its stores have also been shut down. 

Some Qingdao consumers have waited more than a month for refunds, the report said. 

Costa did not respond to the request for an interview by the Global Times, but the company was quoted as saying in the 21jingji.com report that closing some stores is part of its strategy to optimize and adjust its business in China. 

"At the same time, we will not slow down our speed to open more retail stores in China. We will continue paying attention to new opportunities for opening new stores, and we're confident in the Chinese market, and will continue to invest and develop in China," the company noted.

Analysts said the closure is partly due to the epidemic, which trapped Chinese consumers at home and curbed their eating and drinking activities. 

Some consumers also complained about the coffee store's inflexibility in terms of localization. 

"Unlike Starbucks or local rival Luckin Coffee, which offer consumers a wide range of choices of beverages and snacks as well as online food delivery services, Costa remained quite inflexible in adapting to the Chinese market, even though its coffee has a good flavor," A 20-something Beijing-based white-collar worker surnamed Shen told the Global Times on Monday. 

Founded in 1971, the British coffee brand entered the Chinese market in 2006, seeking to compete with US coffee chain Starbucks. It once opened new stores in China at a speed that was 2.5 times faster than Starbucks, with locations close to those of its US competitor. 

Global Times