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The prestigious 2008 Sammies Award took place on Thursday 15 May where judges awarded Costa on its levels of innovation, quality, sales, product range, packaging and presentation.

A panel of judges from the BSA carried out an unannounced visit of the new Costa store on the Kingsway in central London to view the sandwich range, store environment and customer service.

Food is an intrinsic part of Costa's business and it constantly reviews and trials its offerings to reflect what its customers really want. The coffee shop recently carried out a full review of its sandwich range where it improved the appearance and quantity of all its ingredients and recipes as well as presentation of the range.

Commenting on the winning success, Costa category brand manager Debbie Melhuish said: "This award reinforces our quality offering, not only for our food and drink, but for the overall brand and in-store experience. It's great to be able to share the recognition with our whole Costa team and our supplier Buckingham Foods. We'll be highlighting our success on our products next week so we can share it with our customers''.

Costa category brand manager Kate Thompson said: "It's fantastic that all the hard work from both Costa and Buckingham Foods to launch a complete new range has been recognised by industry experts.