Cotti Coffee, China’s second-largest coffee brand, is taking its UK expansion beyond London with a site in the former Moss Bros unit on New Street, Birmingham. The franchised chain has opened seven London sites since its UK launch in February 2026 and is in talks on sites in Manchester.
Cotti Coffee was set up in 2022 by Lu Zhengyao and Qian Zhiya, both former executives of Luckin Coffee. It says it runs more than 18,000 shops in 33 countries, and Propel describes it as the third-largest coffee brand in the world by shop count.
Seven London sites in under eight months
The brand opened its first two UK shops in the first week of February 2026, on Middlesex Street on 4 February and Camden High Street on 6 February. By March it had secured three more London sites, and it has since filled out a cluster across the City, Camden and Bloomsbury.
It now trades from seven London sites: Russell Square, Liverpool Street, Middlesex Street, Camden High Street, Gresham Street, Cheapside and Holborn. The format is a small, digital-first shop known for low prices, heavy discounting and brightly coloured flavoured coffees.
A former menswear shop on New Street
Birmingham will be the first Cotti site outside the capital. The brand has taken the former Moss Bros shop on New Street, one of the city’s main shopping streets, and Propel reports that it is in talks on Manchester.
Birmingham and Manchester were already named as targets in March, when the brand announced its three extra London sites. No opening date for the Birmingham shop has been announced.
A UK company set up in August 2025
Companies House records show that Cotti Coffee UK Limited was incorporated on 28 August 2025, about five months before the first London opening, with a registered office on Finsbury Circus in the City. Its registered activities cover coffee wholesale, agency sales, general wholesale and unlicensed restaurants and cafés.
Its first accounts, for the year to 31 August 2026, are due by 28 May 2027, so the size of its UK trading will not be public before then, which removes one of the checks how to choose your franchisor recommends before an application.
Good to know
Cotti Coffee is described in the trade press as a franchised brand, but it has not published a UK franchise offer, fees or the name of any UK franchise partner, leaving the benchmarks in what it costs to open a franchise in the UK as the only comparison available. Its UK company has not yet filed accounts, so there is no public UK trading figure.
Part of a wider international push
The format is a small, digital-first shop known for low prices, heavy discounting and brightly coloured flavoured coffees, a small-footprint model several of the coffee franchises recruiting in the UK have moved towards.
It expanded into Australasia, the Middle East and North America in 2024, and Global Coffee Report lists Australia and Vietnam among its recent markets. According to Global Coffee Report, it opened in France, Germany and Spain in 2025, in cities including Paris, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Barcelona and Madrid, and plans Belgium, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands next.
The signals to watch in the UK are the Birmingham opening date, a confirmed Manchester site, and whether the brand starts recruiting UK franchise partners or keeps its British shops under a single operator.
