Howard Schultz And Starbucks Coffee Company

The specialty coffee industry had seen steady growth for years and the trend was expected to continue until at least 2015. Of the various segments within the specialty coffee industry, most of the growth was attributable to beverage retailers “Coffee and kiosks”. In 1979 there were approximately 250 specialty coffee retailers. The number quadrupled by 1989 to approx 1000 outlets, and it exploded to roughly 15000 by 2002. Nationally, specialty coffee sales totaled over $ 10 billion in 2005.

Second Cup started as a company in 1975 as a shopping mall kiosk that only sold whole bean coffee. Second Cup still lags behind in sales and international representation after all these years. In the Canadian market, however, Second cup has become the largest Canadian owned specialty coffee retailer. Second Cup

In the US, specialty coffee is a $5-billion industry with a 20% growth rate (House, 2013)

In addition to the trade-offs Howard Schultz and Starbucks made. Another consists of the company’s management deciding to invest a significant amount of capital to provide the highest quality coffee products for their customers. Providing quality coffee requires extreme dedication and

Opportunities: Large growing segment of gourmet coffee drinkers. Canada is a large market segment that buys despite current economic downturn.

The growing chained coffee shops culture in the on-trade has inspired manufacturers to launch specialty coffees in the off-trade. This has led to an increase in both volume and value sales of coffee in the Netherlands. Dutch consumers are becoming more adventurous when it comes to coffee, as is illustrated by the growing popularity of espresso, cappuccino, single origin coffee and flavored coffee.

By 2003, the number of retail specialty coffee shops, cafes, kiosks, coffee carts, and roasters in the United States reached over 17,000, equating to nearly $9 billion in sales. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, 16 percent of adults in the United States drink coffee from one of these specialty outlets daily. (“Organo Gold”, 2008).

The extraordinary success Starbucks experienced during the early 1990s resulted from Howard Schultz’s passion and vision to create a coffee culture in the United States similar to the coffee culture he experienced while traveling to Italy. Schultz’s vision of the Starbucks brand evolved around providing a quality product while delivering exceptional customer service in an inviting atmosphere. Starbucks’ success can be attributable to the following factors:

Starbucks’ lead in the specialty coffee industry exemplifies the result of deftly executing a well-planned business strategy. Moreover, Starbucks is well positioned for what is expected to be a continuing rise in the popularity of specialty coffee products. The question before Starbucks’ leadership, however, is what avenues will lead to Starbucks’ goal of remaining true to its core, the highest quality coffee products while providing a “total coffee experience” for its customers?

Howard Schultz didn’t just build a company, he built an empire. Starbucks’ Coffee is a benchmark in the coffee trade, for coffee drinkers and, even non-coffee drinkers. He nursed a small company in the big city of Seattle, to a global

The larger known coffee businesses were beginning to show signs of stagnation in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Unlike Proctor & Gamble other large manufacturers, specialty coffee producers were small independent distributors. According to the Harvard Business School report on Howard Schultz; During the early 1980’s the average American consumed less than two cups of coffee per day, with almost one of every two men , women and children over the age of 10 does not drink coffee at all. The large coffee business started to compete for market share in a shrinking market. The smaller independent specialty coffee producers were selling only high quality Arabica beans. Arabica beans have less caffeine, less

In general the coffeehouse industry in the United States was experiencing an increase in coffee consumption per capita due to the “Starbucks effect”. At this time Starbucks was operating approximately 20,000 stores in the United States and was living a fast expansion strategy worldwide.

The demand for coffee shops is born from the increased number of individuals seeking coffee brewed outside of the home. This creates a larger market for coffee shops. An increased amount of people are starting their mornings off by purchasing breakfast and a cup of coffee away from home (Tuttle 2014), more people are enjoying gourmet coffee (NCA National Coffee Drinking Trends 2015 Infographic), and younger generations are demanding more coffee and coffee drinks from coffee shops (Tuttle 2014, S&D Coffee and Tea inc. 2014, Statista 2015). Coffee shops must compete with at home coffee, work place coffee, and teas for the caffeinated beverage markets (LN 2015). Demand for coffee within different markets varies, and provides competition for coffee shops. Single cup coffee makers, increasingly qualitative instant coffees, and gourmet beans are all sources of competition that could satisfy the demand for coffee. However, coffee shops are becoming more ingrained in social

In the early 1980’s Howard Schultz, became captivated and saw possibilities in the fledgling specialty coffee market as he studied and observed that only a few Independent specialty coffee roasters existed and most of these businesses were small operations without large advertising budgets. Schultz recognized that many companies such as Peet’s and Starbucks had an enthusiastic base of regular customers who were

Italy has a long history with coffee since it is first introduced in Venice to Italian consumers. After the first coffee-houses’ launch, it became more than just a place for people to drink coffee but also a place for journalists, artists, actors and other respectable people to socialize and debate (pg.68). This culture still shows its effects by dividing coffee market in Italy into two large segments depending on the location of consumption: at home and in restaurants or coffee-houses (pg.71) Although coffee-houses are still important for Italians, today the family segment volume in the coffee market is two times bigger than CHR (coffee-houses and restaurants) segment.