How VComply Streamlined Costa Coffee’s Compliance Processes?

Managing compliance on a global scale presents unique challenges, particularly in the coffee industry. Costa Coffee, operating across 31 countries with over 18,400 employees, found its manual and isolated compliance practices inefficient. VComply’s automated solution helped Costa integrate their compliance workflows, improving coordination, reporting, and reducing risks across the company’s network of stores and employees.

Manual Compliance Management Limits Costa Coffee's Ability to Address Compliance Challenges

Costa Coffee faced significant challenges with manual compliance management processes. Each store used its own compliance protocols, relying on spreadsheets and disconnected systems. This led to a lack of coordination between outlets, creating compliance gaps and making it difficult to assess risks effectively. Evidence management was another issue, with audit-ready documentation scattered across various files and folders. Without clear version control and access management, the risk of errors increased.

VComply Transforms Costa Coffee's Compliance Operations

Compliance Task Tracking and Daily Operations Management

Costa Coffee relies heavily on VComply’s “To Do Responsibilities” feature to manage daily, weekly, and monthly compliance tasks. With numerous tasks to complete regularly, VComply helps the team stay organized and on track with their compliance obligations. By implementing VComply, they gained:

A centralized platform for managing recurring tasks and deadlines

Real-time tracking of daily, weekly, and monthly compliance activities

Automated reminders to ensure tasks are completed on time, reducing missed deadlines

Audit Management and Compliance Reporting

Costa Coffee faces routine audits as part of their compliance program. VComply has streamlined their audit processes, automating audit trails and generating compliance reports. With VComply, they achieved:

Easy scheduling of periodic audits with automated reminders

Real-time generation of audit reports with all necessary compliance data

Improved audit-readiness with consolidated evidence and documented findings

Internal SOX Controls Management

Costa Coffee uses VComply to manage their internal SOX controls, ensuring that they adhere to the requirements set by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This has been critical in maintaining financial and operational integrity, especially as Costa continues to scale its operations across multiple countries. By using VComply, they gained:

Automated tracking of internal SOX controls, reducing manual intervention and human error

Documentation and reporting capabilities to comply with SOX regulations

Continuous monitoring of SOX compliance with real-time updates, helping Costa maintain audit-readiness

A Unified Compliance System for QSR Services

Compliance Frameworks

Built-in compliance frameworks, enabling them to align with industry-specific regulations and internal policies across their global operations.

Document Management

Manage compliance evidence in one centralized location, reducing errors and maintaining version control.

Collaboration

Collaborate across multiple locations, eliminating silos and ensuring compliance efforts are coordinated organization-wide.

Gap Analysis and Corrective Action

Gap analysis and corrective action management feature helps Costa identify compliance gaps, track corrective actions, and maintain full visibility over regulatory compliance.

Compliance Reporting

Real-time compliance reports and dashboards, giving Costa immediate access to necessary data, making compliance tracking and decision-making faster and more efficient.

Obligation Management

Track daily, weekly, and monthly compliance tasks efficiently, ensuring all obligations are met on time.

The Outcome: Faster, Smarter Compliance Management

By adopting VComply, Costa Coffee reduced its compliance overhead and enhanced its ability to monitor regulatory obligations across global operations. The platform’s automated processes, real-time tracking, and centralization of evidence management made it easier for Costa to maintain compliance with both internal and external requirements. VComply’s pre-built controls, especially for SOX compliance, simplified the process, allowing stakeholders to focus on more strategic initiatives.