Costa Coffee, the UK-based coffee shop chain owned by hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread, has confirmed it has agreed a deal to buy Poland-based rival coffeeheaven for £36m.

The acquisition is expected to allow Costa Coffee to press ahead with plans to expand into Central and Eastern Europe after the coffeeheaven board of directors accepted an offer of 24p per share for the business. A subsidiary of Costa Ltd will manage the coffeeheaven business, which currently operates 90 coffee shops across the continent, including 62 outlets in Poland, 14 in the Czech Republic and a further 14 properties across Bulgaria, Hungary and Latvia.

Costa managing director John Derkach said: "This transaction will give Costa a strong position in the important and rapidly growing Central and Eastern European market, with clear opportunities for synergies as well as a new pipeline of stores for the future." Richard Worthington, executive chair of cofffeeheaven, added: "The coffeeheaven business should benefit from the substantial resources available to Costa and our staff will have the opportunity to work within a much larger group to continue to grow and develop the business."