Costa Coffee has opened its first shop inside a Cineworld cinema, at Ashton-under-Lyne, and named the 26 cinemas it plans to cover. The opening took place on 21 October, with Broughton Park next on 28 October. Regional coverage on 29 October lists Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham among later sites.
Costa Coffee announced earlier this month that it planned up to 26 Cineworld cinemas, a plan L’Express Franchise reported on 12 October, when the company had not said how many sites would be franchised.
The first shop is the opening step of that collaboration, and the Hexham Courant calls it the first of a planned roll-out across the UK. Costa describes the shop as part of its expansion into high-footfall leisure destinations, the format now used across the coffee franchises in the UK and the cinema operator calls the partnership a new chapter for Cineworld.
The first shop at Ashton-under-Lyne
The Ashton-under-Lyne shop serves Costa’s hot and iced drinks, including the Mocha Italia, alongside toasties and sweet snacks, in Costa’s current shop design with comfortable seating. It trades from 12pm to 9pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 9.30pm at weekends.
The team is made up of up to 12 baristas, including colleagues who have transitioned to Costa as part of the opening. A weekend of celebrations on 24 and 25 October included free samples and a prize wheel.
The 26 sites on the list
The 26 cinemas named in the list published by the Hexham Courant on 29 October 2026 are set out below, with the nation and region of each.
| Cinema site | Nation | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Ashton-under-Lyne | England | North West |
| Broughton Park | England | North West |
| Didsbury | England | North West |
| Glasgow Silverburn | Scotland | Scotland |
| Edinburgh | Scotland | Scotland |
| Speke | England | North West |
| Ashford | England | South East |
| Crawley | England | South East |
| Brighton | England | South East |
| Basildon | England | East of England |
| Hemel Hempstead | England | East of England |
| Sheffield | England | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Braintree | England | East of England |
| South Ruislip | England | London |
| Leeds | England | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Ipswich | England | East of England |
| Stevenage | England | East of England |
| Barnsley | England | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| Birmingham Broad Street | England | West Midlands |
| Milton Keynes | England | South East |
| Boldon | England | North East |
| Telford | England | West Midlands |
| Rushden Lakes | England | East Midlands |
| Falkirk | Scotland | Scotland |
| Wolverhampton | England | West Midlands |
| Cheltenham | England | South West |
What Costa and Cineworld said
Andrew Miller, express and corporate sales director for the UK and Ireland at Costa Coffee, said the opening is “just the beginning of an exciting rollout” that will bring Costa to cinema-goers across the UK. Tim Sparrow, retail director at Cineworld, said the company looks forward to seeing more Costa shops roll out across its cinemas in due course.
Sparrow added that Cineworld prides itself on elevating the guest experience from the moment visitors walk in to when they sit back and watch the film. Neither statement gives a timetable for the full 26, an investment figure or a count of how many shops will be run by Costa and how many by a partner.
Costa and franchising
Franchised Costa shops exist in the UK, but no live public UK franchise recruitment page was found when the brand reference was last checked. The coverage of the Cineworld shops does not say whether any will be franchised, so the operating model for the cinema sites is not established.
What is not yet known
Broughton Park was scheduled for 28 October, and the coverage reviewed does not confirm that it has opened. Costa has not published dates for the other 24 sites. The sources describe the plan in terms of up to 26 cinemas, so the final number may differ from the list.
The 12 October report on the same announcement also covered plans for up to 40 more Costa drive-thru sites in 2026, which means the cinema plan sits alongside a separate roadside roll-out, expansion on a scale few brands in the UK franchise directory attempt in one year.
