Client Overview
Costa Coffee, one of the UK’s largest coffee shop chains, operates a complex, multi-channel supply chain spanning global coffee sourcing, UK roasting, and European distribution. Following regulatory changes, Costa faced critical export control challenges that threatened their UK-to-EU supply chain continuity.
To restore and future-proof their export capability, Costa commissioned Surtori to architect a Digital Export Control System that would transform their compliance from reactive documentation to predictive, AI-enabled assurance.
The initiative aimed to shift export controls from manual, error-prone processes toward automated verification and proactive compliance, establishing the data foundations for real-time regulatory alignment across all EU-bound shipments.
The Challenge
For Costa, the obstacle wasn’t a lack of coffee or logistics—it was a lack of trust in their export data.
Over years of EU trading, Costa had built fragmented data practices across sourcing, roasting, and distribution partners. Export documentation was technically complete but operationally incompatible with new post-Brexit requirements. Customs declarations from different channels could not be validated, aggregated, or verified with confidence.
Adding to the complexity:
- Data originated from disparate supplier ecosystems, each with separate quality assurance chains.
- Food safety and customs obligations demanded auditability and lineage, not just paperwork.
- The organisation faced regulatory scrutiny that required any export system to be explainable, traceable, and defensible.
- Legacy terminology and inconsistent product codes created semantic noise that undermined customs officials’ confidence.
The core challenge, therefore, was not documentation or logistics—it was establishing a unified data language across a federated supply chain where governance, risk, and partner maturity varied wildly.
Surtori’s task was to design the framework that could bridge these divides—a set of standards robust enough for customs regulation, but flexible enough to enable automated compliance across a diverse ecosystem.
The Surtori Approach (Fusion Framework™)
Using Surtori’s Fusion Framework™, the engagement engineered Costa’s first enterprise-wide export-control and AI-readiness architecture, validated against HMRC standards, ISO 8000, and food safety regulations.Table
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| Phase | Focus | Key Actions | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | Diagnose existing export environment | Conducted full audit of export documentation, supplier submissions, and customs interfaces across all EU channels. | Identified 150+ data elements requiring harmonisation across origin, processing, and destination records. |
| Design | Build standards and governance model | Authored Costa Export Control Data Standards and Contracts Framework, including product catalogue, customs dictionary, data-quality KPIs, and supplier integration protocols. | Established a controlled, interoperable data model forming the blueprint for automated compliance use. |
| Deliver (POC) | Enable automated compliance feasibility | Defined data pipelines, validation logic, and AI model-readiness scoring for the Export Control POC. | Demonstrated feasibility of predictive customs clearance and duty optimisation using Costa data. |
| Embed | Institutionalise good export practice | Designed a 4-phase roadmap—from paper-based to predictive compliance—and trained internal teams on data stewardship and supplier management. | Framework adopted by Costa Supply Chain as reference architecture for all EU export initiatives. |
The Results
Within 12 weeks, Costa achieved measurable progress from manual documentation toward intelligent export control:
- Unified Export Dictionary: 350+ fields standardised across origin, processing, customs, and logistics domains.
- Data Contracts Implemented: Quality thresholds, schema, and change-control rules enforced across all suppliers and distribution channels.
- Predictive Readiness: Automated validation achieved >90% accuracy in pre-shipment compliance checking.
- Governance Framework Established: 7-step model now integrated into Costa’s enterprise supply chain strategy.
- Scalability Proven: POC confirmed a clear pathway from reactive documentation to enterprise-grade predictive compliance.
Strategic Insights
Analysis of the Costa case study informed Surtori’s recommendations—drawing lessons from nuclear, financial services, and logistics sectors:
- Unified architecture enables single-source-of-truth governance across fragmented supply chains.
- Automated data-quality scoring reduces human error and enhances customs trust.
- Self-service compliance analytics accelerate cultural adoption and supplier accountability.
- Regulatory alignment ensures auditability and defensible export practices.
These lessons validated that the Costa framework matched proven global success patterns, positioning it as one of the UK’s first operational AI-readiness blueprints for post-Brexit export controls.
Legacy and Ongoing Impact
The Costa Export Control Framework is now embedded across their wider digital-transformation roadmap, forming the data backbone for predictive assurance, supply chain analytics, and AI-governed decision-making.
Surtori continues to advise on export-governance scaling and compliance-performance validation across the Costa group, ensuring the foundation remains compliant, explainable, and adaptive to future regulatory standards.