Costa has unveiled the first of a series of new commuter-focused mini-sites.

Located at Lewisham Station in London, the space was previously the station manager’s office, and marks the debut of eight planned mini-format stores due to open in London stations over the next six months.

The layout and ordering system has been designed to have customers in and out of the store in just a few minutes, said Costa. All the stores will be takeaway only and have contactless payment options, with some offering self-service ordering screens.

They will offer a selection of bakery items such as croissants, chocolate twists and cinnamon buns.

“We’re committed to putting customer experience at the heart of everything we do,” said Costa global store propositions & design head Connie Emerson.

“The next evolution of a store concept had to centre on meeting the needs of busy, on-the-go commuters.”

Travel hubs are of growing interest to bakery operators. Greggs, for example, has sites at London train stations and has more travel hub locations in the pipeline as it looks to move away from the high street.

Recent research by The NPD Group showed the value of the travel hub foodservice market from has risen from £2.47bn to £2.75bn, an increase of 11%, in the year ending June 2019.