Unity Coffee Launches to Redefine the UK’s Self-Serve Coffee Market
Dubai, 2 September 2025 (Qahwa World) – Scott Martin, the entrepreneur who pioneered the UK’s self-serve coffee sector, has returned with a bold new venture, Unity Coffee, which aims to disrupt the market through digital-first innovation, premium quality, and fairer value.
The brand is rolling out this month across the United Kingdom, targeting retail, travel, leisure, and education venues. With a plan to install more than 500 units in the next two years, Unity Coffee positions itself as a challenger brand ready to compete directly with industry giants.
Built on a FinTech platform, Unity Coffee is the first self-service coffee concept of its kind, offering customers a seamless mobile-first journey. Consumers can order and pay through the brand’s dedicated app while benefiting from agile pricing, real-time promotions, and personalized loyalty rewards. The machines are designed to ensure consistency across a wide menu that includes espresso, specialty coffee drinks, matcha, and hot chocolate, with both dairy and plant-based milk options.
“The coffee-to-go market has let customers down for years with overpriced drinks and tired, repetitive experiences,” said Martin. “Unity Coffee is leading a new movement, delivering exceptional coffee at fairer prices through smart technology, dynamic loyalty, and instant rewards. We’re going to take on big coffee and give the power back to the people.”
Martin is no stranger to innovation. In 1998, he co-founded Coffee Nation, which quickly grew to nearly 900 machines and captured almost half of the UK’s self-serve market. The company was acquired by Whitbread in 2011 for £59.5 million ($77.3 million) and rebranded as Costa Express. Under Martin’s leadership, the network expanded to 14,000 machines before becoming part of Coca-Cola’s £3.9 billion ($5.4 billion) acquisition of Costa Coffee in 2019.
Unity Coffee has secured backing from investors with strong expertise across hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and packaging, ensuring both financial strength and operational insight. Martin himself continues to advise on other innovative ventures, including UK specialty coffee group Grind, self-serve solutions firm BoxBar, and Singapore-based Crown Digital, the developer of the robotic barista concept ELLA.
The launch of Unity Coffee comes at a time when self-service technologies are gaining renewed attention across global retail. With its FinTech foundation, wide product range, and consumer-first approach, the brand is positioning itself not just as a coffee provider but as part of a broader digital transformation in the coffee-to-go sector.
