Costa Coffee, the coffee shop giant is to recruit 2,000 more staff and thank 14,500 existing staff with a 5 per cent pay rise.

This applies to staff in non-franchised stores. There are 40 company-owned stores in Gloucestershire.

The company has said it wants to thank its staff for their hard work during the pandemic.

From 1 October 2021, all store team members will receive pay increases of at least 45p per hour, bringing minimum pay to £9.36 per hour from £8.91. The company's fully trained Barista Maestros, who manage the stores will see their pay go up by 65p per hour, bringing the minimum for these more experienced roles to £10.29 from £9.64 per hour.

Top rates of pay for store team members also increase, depending on location and experience, to £11.29 per hour from £10.64. In real terms, this means that the average Costa Coffee store team member working between 20 and 40 hours per week will see their annual take-home pay increase between £500 to £900, based on a 45p increase. Those receiving 65p will see an increase of between £700 to £1,400.

Neil Lake, managing director of Costa Coffee UK & Ireland, said: "Our team members are the heart of our business and as we continue to emerge stronger from the pandemic, this 5% pay increase is one way we are able to show our thanks to them. Our teams have been through the most challenging year and a half in living memory and have shown incredible passion, resilience, and commitment as they continue to serve perfectly crafted cups of Costa coffee to consumers across the country. We are committed to putting our team members first, investing in their safety and wellbeing and their long-term development, ensuring we remain a great place to work for all our current team members and the 2,000 team members we'll be welcoming in the coming months."

The recruitment is to keep up with upcoming festive demand, and comes after the coffee shop chain had to made 609 redundancies a year ago due to reopening not rebounding to levels bosses had hoped for.