The soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is buying the Costa Coffee chain in a near-￡4bn deal that underlines the scale of the global coffee revolution.

软饮料巨头可口可乐公司用近40亿英镑的价格买下Costa咖啡，标志着全球范围内咖啡界的革新。

The takeover will overnight turn Coca-Cola into the UK's biggest coffee shop player and give it a foothold in what is one of the world's fastest-growing drinks categories. The global coffee shop market alone is worth $165bn (￡127bn).

这项收购让可口可乐摇身一变成为英国最大的咖啡店领导者，在世界增长最快的饮料领域谋得一席之位。Costa这家全球连锁咖啡公司市值在1650亿美元，折合1270亿英镑。

Alison Brittain, the chief executive of Costa Coffee's owner Whitbread, said the coffee chain had been approached by a number of potential buyers but Coke's desire to snap up the 4,000-store chain was a “dream deal” for investors¹.

韦博得集团旗下Costa咖啡的总裁Alison Brittain称，有许多潜在的买家想要买下Cost，但是可口可乐公司想买下4000家分店，对于投资者来说是“很理想的买卖”。

Whitbread, which also owns the Premier² Inn hotel chain, bought Costa from its founders³ Sergio and Bruno Costa for ￡19m in 1995 when it had only 39 shops.

韦博得旗下还有Premier Inn连锁酒店，Costa是在1995年从Sergio和Bruno Costa手中花了190万英镑买来，当时只有39家门店。

Angus Grierson, the managing director of the advisory⁴ firm LGB Corporate⁵ Finance, said the lightning speed the deal was done – it was brokered⁶ in five weeks – reflected the urgency with which Coca-Cola wanted to reduce its reliance on sugary drinks.

LGB财务顾问公司的管理总监Angus Grierson称这项交易几乎是光速完成的，只用了短短5周的时间，反应出可口可乐公司是对想要减轻对于含糖饮料的依赖是多么急切。

“The deal is an attempt to adapt quickly to changing tastes, notably⁷ the continuing rise in popularity of coffee, particularly among millennial⁸ consumers,” Grierson said. “Customers are choosing lower-sugar varieties of soft drinks more than they ever have, with sales of sugary drinks declining rapidly, down 11% in 2018, thanks in part to the introduction of the UK's first-ever sugar tax.”

“这项收购也能够快速适应人们善变的口味，特别是最近咖啡的销量的不断上升，尤其是出生在千禧年之后的消费者的群体中。”Grierson说道。“相较之前，顾客更倾向选择低糖的饮料，2018年糖类饮料的销售量下降很快，高达11%，一部分也要因为英国第一次开始征收糖税。