A COFFEE shop celebrated the success of its new store by giving free drinks to its customers.

Costa Coffee opened its doors to customers in Canvey Island’s Knightswick Shopping Centre in December. and has seen the outlet become increasingly busy.

To celebrate the success of the new outlet, the Knightswick Shopping Centre and Costa Coffee teamed up to give 50 lucky coffee lovers a free cup of their favourite coffee.

Knightswick Shopping Centre manager, Andy Pay, said he was delighted with how popular Costa had proved since opening.

He said: “I’m pleased that we’ve been able to bring Costa Coffee to Knightswick. We’ve got a great mix of retailers and services at the centre and now we can add Costa Coffee to that mix.

“The owners of Knightswick have spent a lot of time working extremely hard to bring such a high calibre brand to the centre

A spokesperson for Costa Coffee added: “We hope that the new Costa store will be a welcoming place for people to meet and relax in a friendly environment.

“The team are have also started to look at ways for the store to take an active role in the local community, and by creating eight new jobs at the store for local people we are well on the way to starting to create a good connection with our customers in the local area.

“Since opening we have welcomed lots of residents from Canvey and further afield.”