Cooks Coffee sales jump after Tesco Ireland partnership, passes 100 stores

The Tesco Ireland deal looks less like a one-off win than a cleaner route to scale for Esquires. By putting five cafés inside Tesco stores in Tullamore, Clonmel, Youghal, Waterford and Wexford, Cooks Coffee tapped grocery traffic instead of fighting for every pound of high-street rent and every inch of standalone real estate.

That bet landed with force in the year to 31 March 2026. Cooks Coffee said UK and Ireland store sales reached £43.1 million, up 22.8%, while pre-tax earnings rose 6.8% to £529,000 and group revenue almost doubled to £5.4 million. Total group sites climbed to 105 from 89 a year earlier, taking the brand above 100 stores for the first time. The chain now has 82 UK stores and 23 in Ireland.

The Ireland business was especially useful in the mix. Irish like-for-like sales rose 4.9% in the year, compared with 1.8% in the UK, and franchise stores accounted for 80% of total Irish sales. Cooks Coffee also said its debt-to-total-assets ratio improved to 7.15% from 11.8%, giving the company a bit more breathing room as it pushes ahead with expansion. Tesco Ireland, with 193 stores, offers a ready-made stream of shoppers that a standalone café opening simply cannot match.

That is why the expansion story matters as much as the sales line. Cooks Coffee has said it wants at least 300 stores in the UK by 2034, and it is still looking at locations in Derby, Liverpool, Blackpool and Hull. It is also eyeing Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates. For a brand built around neighborhood cafés, the Tesco partnership suggests a broader playbook: grow where the customers already are, then use that visibility to pull in the next franchise operators.

The chain’s history helps explain the momentum. Esquires was founded in 1993 in Delta, British Columbia, by Doug Williamson and Gary Buckland, and Aiden Keegan became Cooks Coffee’s first chief executive in March 2024. Since then, the company has leaned harder into franchise-led growth, and Esquires Ireland has picked up two Irish Franchise Association awards, including Franchisee of the Year and Franchisor of the Year. The Tesco deal is the clearest sign yet that the next phase of coffee-chain growth may come from piggybacking retail footfall, not just chasing another corner unit.