Traditionally the most popular tipple of tertiary students was cheap alcohol, but it’s now the high-street coffee chains who are battling for supremacy on campus, not just in the streets and towns around them. This has been a battleground before with Kenco (Kraft) and Nescafé all targeting students in the past. Costa Coffee jumped to an early lead with licensing deals on the campuses of Leicester, Swansea and Sheffield universities. Arch US rival Starbucks has decided it wants to enter the fray and has just signed its first licensing agreement with the University of Surrey.

While this deal had the editors at Caterer and Hotelkeeper all atwitter, the reality is that University of Exeter already has a Starbucks on campus. What has generated far more comment on campus in Surrey is why the loss-making university did the deal with Starbucks rather than offering the opportunity to the University of Surrey Students’ Union (USSU). Writing in the USSU’s PGTips publication, Ciaran Fisher’s anti-Starbucks rant was we suspect supposed to read like a mathematical proof. It read:
I. We already have coffee on campus
II. Our university is losing money
III. Starbucks are too big and not all good
IV. Q.E.D. University authorities should hand over the space so USSU can make money from students

A poor theorem, but one which probably plays well to the fraternal brothers and sisters of the USSU, particularly when the article is accompanied by an obscene version of the Starbucks logo. Starbucks probably won’t be thrilled about this, nor we suspect will Unilever, the owners of the PG Tips tea brand. Meanwhile the campus coffee war looks set to continue across the UK.
www.starbucks.co.uk
www.ussu.co.uk