Caffè Nero Brand Guidelines: A 1990 South Kensington Café, a 1997 Buyer & the Nero Group

A 1990 café, a 1997 buyer and a house blend.

Caffè Nero began in London in 1990. The Caterer reported in November 2020 that its original founder, Ian Semp, opened the first outlet in South Kensington that year and added four more London premises before selling the business in 1997 to Gerry Ford, an American venture capitalist who became its chief executive. The name is Italian for “black coffee,” English Wikipedia says, and it dates the brand “as it is recognised today” to Ford’s purchase, crediting him with introducing Classico, the house blend still served in the shops.

The company went public quickly and then went private again. English Wikipedia says it joined the London Stock Exchange in March 2001; The Caterer, reporting the buy-out in January 2007, described the shares as traded on the Alternative Investment Market. In December 2006 Ford made an offer through a bid vehicle, Rome Bidco, and on 19 January 2007 the offer was declared unconditional, The Caterer reported, returning the 282-outlet company to private hands, with the private equity firm Paladin keeping a significant holding. The shares were to leave the market in February 2007.

Abroad, English Wikipedia lists openings in Turkey in 2007, the United Arab Emirates in 2009, Poland in 2012, Cyprus in 2013, Ireland and the United States in 2014 — starting in Boston — Croatia in 2017 and Oman in 2018, as well as Sweden. In 2009, it says, the company opened its own roastery in Battersea, south London, which supplies the coffee for its coffee houses and other brands. In the United States, it adds, the chain presented itself as a European-style coffee house rather than a fast-service counter.

Buying chains, then a CVA in 2020.

Growth in Britain came partly through buying other chains. English Wikipedia says the group bought the Harris + Hoole business from Tesco in June 2016, with 43 sites, and in January 2019 took a 67% majority stake in Coffee#1, the chain in Wales, South West England and the Midlands, from the brewer SA Brains, buying the remaining shares in February 2022. In 2019, it says, the chain also worked with the mixer brand Fever-Tree on two versions of an espresso and tonic.

The hardest period came in 2020. On 13 November 2020 the BBC reported that Caffè Nero, then employing about 6,000 people across about 800 shops in the UK and a further 200 abroad, was launching a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) to renegotiate terms with landlords and other creditors after a second round of trading restrictions in England. KPMG was appointed to oversee the process, and the plan was understood to move most sites to rents based on turnover. More than 90% of creditors approved it, The Caterer reported. The day before the vote the company rejected a takeover proposal from EG Group, the forecourt operator.

A landlord, funded by EG Group, then asked the courts to overturn the arrangement. In September 2021 the High Court dismissed the challenge, rejecting the allegations of material irregularity and unfair prejudice and ruling that the company had “acted in good faith,” The Caterer reported. In January 2022 the company completed a debt refinancing with HSBC, Santander and Carlyle, Restaurant Online reported, adding that its equity remained majority-controlled by Ford together with family and friends. At that point the group ran four brands — Caffè Nero, Coffee #1, Harris + Hoole and Aroma — across 1,020 stores in ten countries, the same report said.

How coffee-shop chains present themselves.

Coffee-shop chains are brands people meet at the counter. The cup handed over, the sleeve around it, the menu board behind the barista and the sign over the door all carry the name, and the companies show them in their own photographs and on their own websites. A chain that buys another often keeps the second name on the shop front, so one owner can run several looks on the same high street.

Naming is usually plain and close to the product. Chains name house blends, seasonal drinks and loyalty schemes in their own voice, borrow words from Italian or from their home language, and describe store formats by where they sit: high streets, railway and underground stations, airports, shopping centres and, more recently, drive-throughs. Some keep a single format; others add kiosks and cafés inside other retailers.

Ownership is where the stories diverge. Many chains began with one café and a founder, then passed through private equity firms, family investment companies or stock-market listings, and some have gone private again. Corporate pages tell the founding story, while independent trade press and national newspapers record the deals, the restructurings, the court rulings and the openings abroad, with dates.

This guide sets out what can be checked about each chain: who founded it and where, who owns it now, how it grew and what it says about its coffee and baking. Where a fact rests only on the company’s own word, it is given as the company’s claim. The palette and typeface shown are our own unofficial interpretation, not the brand’s.

Two more chains in 2024, and a drive-through.

The group kept buying in 2024. On 28 October 2024 the BBC reported that 200 Degrees, the Nottingham coffee chain set up in 2012 with 21 stores and its own roastery, had been bought and would become the fifth brand in what is now called The Nero Group, operating separately alongside the others. Days later, The Caterer reported on 6 November 2024, the group bought FCB Coffee, which began as a kiosk in 1998 and had grown to 11 sites in London and South East transport hubs; the group then had more than 50 locations in railway and underground stations and 790 stores in the UK, alongside its Coffee#1, Harris + Hoole and Aroma brands.

The formats have widened too. In January 2024 The Caterer reported plans for the chain’s first 24-hour drive-through, built from scratch near the terminal at London Stansted Airport, with charging points for electric cars and parking; Ford called the store “an experiment” and a template for further drive-throughs. English Wikipedia says it opened in spring 2024, and that in December 2024 the chain opened a café in the John Lewis store at White City and five cafés inside Waitrose shops.

The chain also puts its name on books. In May 2023, The Guardian reported, Caffè Nero launched the Nero Book Awards, covering fiction, debut fiction, non-fiction and children’s books by writers based in the UK and Ireland and administered by the Booksellers Association, a year after Costa ended its own book prizes.

For a design guide, Caffè Nero shows how one Italian-named coffee house can sit at the head of a group of separately branded chains. Compare Costa Coffee, its neighbour on the British high street, and Espresso House, a Swedish chain that also grew by taking over others. For this guide we use espresso brown, ink black, warm cream and a muted blue with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Caffè Nero’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.