Costa selects Premier Lodge marketer for UK

Costa Coffee has appointed former Premier Lodge marketer Nick Read to the new position of head of marketing UK.

Read will report to Costa Coffee marketing director David Hutchinson, who has a brief to develop the coffee chain’s international profile. The Whitbread-owned chain has just opened 300 outlets in India.

Read was previously brand director at low-cost hotel chain Premier Lodge, where he had responsibility for all marketing and branding. At Premier Lodge he developed campaigns for the budget hotel brand to appeal to leisure customers rather than business customers.

However, his role was axed when Premier Lodge was bought from Spirit Group by Travel Inn, also owned by Whitbread (MW September 22). The two chains have since merged under the new brand Premier Travel Inn.

Read is a former Travel Inn marketing manager and joined Scottish & Newcastle in 2000 when the company bought the Premier Inns & Lodges chain. The acquisition was used as the launchpad for the Premier Lodge brand.

Hutchinson was appointed marketing director at Costa Coffee in June and replaced John Rogers, who left to join De Vere Hotels (MW June 24). Costa Coffee spent very little on advertising in the past year but the chain has just signed up to sponsor all regional editions of free newspaper Metro’s Start The Day page for a month.