Whitbread chief Alison Brittain launches digital-ordering trial at Costa Coffee

From digital banking to digital breakfast, the new boss of Whitbread is launching a trial for Costa customers to order their skinny latte and ciabatta bacon roll on their smartphone and have it ready to pick it up from the coffee shop minutes later.

Alison Brittain, who started as Whitbread’s chief executive this week, said: “We have the best-loved coffee shop and hotel brands in the country but we have to keep those brands relevant and fresh for consumers.

“That means offering new propositions and new formats and digital-ordering coffee is just one of those.”

Brittain, who was poached to replace Andy Harrison from Lloyds Bank, where she ran its retail division, said she was particularly pleased with Premier’s new hub hotel concept, the Costa Fresco format with store-baked food which launched in Tottenham Court Road this week and the digital-ordering trial in another London store starting in a couple of weeks.

She said: “We have to be bold. There is fundamental structural growth there in both the coffee and hotel markets but at the same time we must recognise people’s tastes change.

“The business has grown so fast and so successfully that we recognise that we must invest in systems and our core capabilities.”