Costa Coffee appoints Belgian Sara Lee boss as new CEO

British coffee chain Costa Coffee has appointed Philippe Schaillee as its new CEO. The Belgian national has been in the coffee business for a long time, previously working at Sara Lee and Jacobs Douwe Egberts.

Back to coffee

Schaillee will start working at Coca-Cola‘s coffee chain on 10 April, departing French group SEB where he has had the role of Executive Vice President since April 2021. At the parent company of household names such as Krups, Moulinex and Tefal, Schaillee was in charge of Products and Innovation. Before that, he has spent almost his entire career at Sara Lee (both in Belgium and the United States) and later at divested Jacobs Douwe Egberts.

Costa Coffee has been owned by Coca-Cola since 2019 and has more than 3,900 outlets in 45 countries. Schaillee is to succeed Jill McDonald as CEO, and report to Coca-Cola’s President of Global Ventures Evguenia Stoichkova.