After acquiring Aroma, McDonald's had created a partnership with Pret a Manger, which offered customers both sandwiches and coffee. The BBC's Alex Ritson speculated that this made Aroma redundant to McDonald's plans and further noted that a second factor for the sale is that the UK is saturated with coffee shops. The Timess Dominic Walsh cited the same reasons for the sale, noting that McDonald's miscalculated how challenging it would be to "tur[n] the struggling Aroma brand around" while encountering "stiff competition" from Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Coffee Republic, and Caffè Nero. McDonald's asked for £5million for purchasing Aroma's locations and brand, but the restaurant property advisor company Davis Coffer Lyons guessed that Aroma's leases amounted only to £5million. After Caffé Nero was reported to be a possible buyer, an analyst speculated in September 2001, "Aroma may have to be dismembered and Caffe Nero would not be the only one seeking to buy some of its outlets." Caffè Nero Caffè Nero inked a preliminary deal to purchase 26 Aroma locations on 18February 2002 which would increase the total number of Caffé Nero branches to 107. To fund the deal, Caffè Nero secured a £5million loan from NatWest and Paladin Partners, which acted as both its bank and venture capital investor. It planned to spend £60,000 per Aroma outlet to rebrand all of them as it did not intend to use Aroma's name. The law firm Reed Smith Warner Cranston oversaw the acquisition. Aroma was rebranded to the name Neros. Caffè Nero's purchase of 31 Aroma stores for £2.45 million closed in May 2002. The acquisition moved Caffè Nero to third place in the UK coffee market after Costa and Starbucks. McDonald's lost over £20million in its sale of Aroma, having spent £10.5million to buy it and investing £17million to make improvements and increase the number of Aroma branches from 23 to 35. The Guardians Andrew Clark said "McDonald's has called time on its disastrous foray into coffee bars". Aroma had 35 total stores and McDonald's had been unable to find a buyer willing to purchase every one, so the remaining four stores would be independently sold. Aroma Ambiental in Argentina Aroma expanded to Argentina in mid-2000 under the leadership of Sergio Alonso who had previously worked for McDonald's as an executive. At first, the goal was to have 50 Aroma locations by 2004, but the country's convertibility plan caused economic uncertainty