About 15 jobs have been created with the opening of a new coffee shop in Summertown.

The Costa store is the 500th to open in the United Kingdom and has cost more than £250,000 to develop.

Manager Julia De Felice said: "We are all very excited about opening our doors and are looking forward to welcoming our first customers.

"We hope to provide local people with the opportunity to enjoy Costa's authentic Italian coffee in a friendly and comfortable environment."

John Derkach, Costa's managing director, added: "500 UK stores is a fantastic achievement for Costa and Oxford is a great location to celebrate this milestone.

"We recently announced ambitious plans to double our previous target of stores by 2010 and we now expect to grow from around a total of 650 stores today to 2000 stores in the next five years."

Whitbread chairman, Anthony Habgood joined Costa staff in Oxford for the official ribbon cutting' opening of the new 70-seater store on Banbury Road.

Costa, founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971, also has 150 stores overseas. It made a pre-tax profit £181.1m in the year to March 2.