A COFFEE shop is to open in a York branch of WH Smith in an attempt to revive the company's fortunes.

Costa Coffee will operate from at least 20 stores, including the Coney Street branch in York, from next week.

Ten full and part-time staff will be employed to serve shoppers on a trial basis, seven days a week.

Virgin Mobile will also launch a trial of specialist concessions at eight outlets from October, including York.

WH Smith, which has lost sales to supermarket rivals in recent years, said the initiative would look at better use of available space in its stores.

Commercial development director Sue Wharton said: "We are really pleased to have made quick progress working with Costa and Virgin Mobile to bring these products to our customers within a couple of months."

Costa Coffee shops already exist in several WH Smith stores including those in Bournemouth, Edinburgh and Manchester.

The new outlets will be at Gateshead, Reading, Chester, Cardiff, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Sheffield, Bath and Birmingham.

The Virgin Mobile concessions will also be introduced in Leeds, Leicester, Croydon, Tunbridge Wells, Birmingham, Coventry and Guildford

The trial of the new concessions will be reviewed in January.

If successful, the concept could be rolled out to 500 WH Smith stores.

The manager of the Coney Street store Mike Parkes said: "We are pleased to welcome Costa Coffee into our store.

"It will open on September 9 and follow our opening hours, but will close 30 minutes before we do."

Updated: 10:40 Wednesday, September 01, 2004