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。[/cn

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 investors.

[cn]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 Premier Inn hotel chain, bought Costa from its founders 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 advisory firm LGB Corporate Finance, said the lightning speed the deal was done – it was brokered 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, notably the continuing rise in popularity of coffee, particularly among millennial 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。

（翻译：林浔鸥）