Starbucks

Starbucks is a “premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee” (Marketline 2012). This company is globally recognized because of their vast amount of stores, consisting of more than 17,000 retail stores in over 55 countries. Most retail stores are in highly populated areas, like “downtown and suburban centers, office buildings, university campuses and in select rural and off-highway locations” (Marketline 2012).

Starbucks not only sell coffee in their top notch coffee houses but also distribute it. Starbucks has a reputation of providing their customers with the best coffee bean available and in order to get such a high grade bean they help the coffee bean plantation owners to improve their business to provide a better quality coffee. Starbucks and coffee are an American staple.

Starbucks Corporation, an American company founded in 1971 in Seattle, WA, is a premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee around world. Starbucks has about 182,000 employees across 19,767 company operated & licensed stores in 62 countries. Their product mix includes roasted and handcrafted highquality/ premium priced coffees, tea, a variety of fresh food items and other beverages. They also sell a variety of coffee and tea products and license their trademarks through other channels such as licensed stores, grocery and national foodservice accounts.1 Starbucks also markets its products mix with other brand names within its portfolio of companies,

Quality is of the upmost importance to Starbucks. They devote a great deal of energy in order to train and maintain excellent relations with exporters and in order to ensure a high quality bean they puts all shipments through a 3 sample test. First before the purchase is made, than before

Starbucks also constantly introduce new and promising supply strategic strategy along with ethical environmental goals such as C.A.F.E. Practices. Those strategic moves allow them to gain control of their own coffee suppliers which will drives its business to grow tremendously in the international market for the next few years to come. Strong business model is also a key factor which allows Starbucks to take the right steps to ensure their long term goals are successful, as they own a multinational business model which allows them to have a widespread of products that can be customized to suit national requirements. Nevertheless, having such robust business model, Starbucks ought to have continuous improvements and continue building its goals and expectations else their business will be in a downfall situation; therefore, it is important for them to set their objective and strategies clearly and react decisively for any challengers they may face in the dynamic

Starbucks’ supply chain strategy is direct from production to customer. The vision of the company is to keep a personal relationship with customers. The company’s goal is to locate its coffee bars in highly visible locations with high traffic and become the ideal place for customers who know what they want to have a break during their busy daily lives.

The bargaining power of Starbucks Coffee’s Suppliers is not a very high factors as compare to the others as there are thousands of coffee plantations across several continents producing the same quality of coffee bean.

Starbucks has become a well-known company for selling the highest quality coffee beans and best tasting coffee products. Primarily, high-quality Arabica coffee beans are used for their coffee. This is unique for an American company because traditionally, Europeans and Japanese bought most of the premium coffee beans. "In 1992, Starbucks set a new precedent by outbidding European buyers for the exclusive Nariño Supremo Bean crop" ("Starbucks Corporation", 2003). This is important because it makes Starbucks the only company that uses the Nariño Supremo Bean; considered to produce one of the best coffees in the world. Additionally, the quality of the beans is tested in an Agtron blood-cell analyzer, which allows Starbucks to detect and discard any batches not considered perfect. ("Starbucks

owners, however, did not want to be in the restaurant business. Undaunted, Schultz wrote a business plan and

In 1981 the director of marketing of Starbucks Howard Schultz traveled to Milan Italy, there he was amazed by the café that existed on every street corner of the city. When Schultz came back to the United States he was determine to turn Starbucks, which was just a coffee bean retailer at the time, into a café. The owners of Starbucks at the time didn’t buy into the idea so Schultz branched out, and would later make enough money from his idea to buy Starbucks from is former boss and turn Starbucks into what it is today. Today Starbucks is one of the most successful companies in the world, with over 21,366 stores worldwide. They buy coffee beans from all over the world, transport them, process them and get them to their store by some of the most sophisticated, and efficient logistics procedures.

When Starbucks started their target market were people who enjoyed coffee not just for an energy boost from the caffeine, but people who enjoyed sitting down and drinking a well-prepared cup. Upon visiting Italy and falling in love with the coffee bars and the experience that they offered, Schultz envisioned a place between your home and work where you could sit and enjoy your coffee. Starbucks wanted to control their coffee from “raw green beans to the steaming cup” this meant that they had to talk with their farmers to make sure the quality was up to their standards. They were getting coffee from different places around the world that had different characteristics that would attract the type of coffee drinkers they wanted and tasted good. When preparing the coffee they first would ground the roasted beans, this was one of the ways that they attracted people to drink their coffee because it was freshly grounded before brewing. They used manual coffee pots to brew their coffee, which is more time-consuming but showed how dedicated they were with the quality of their product unlike other big companies. Starbucks was priced as a premium cup of coffee compared to other coffee shops, because of the steps they took to make a high-quality cup of Joe from start to finish. They put a lot of time and effort making sure that the atmosphere of

To insure high quality of the product, Starbucks built three roasting plants of his own, where highly trained and experienced personnel monitors roasting of beans (Appendix C). Quality standards are so high that entire batch is thrown away after testing if qualifications differ from acceptable standard.

Starbucks inbound logistics comprises of the firm’s quality control specialist in selecting top-quality Arabia coffee beans from suppliers that maintain a sustainable approach. Starbucks supports ethical sourcing by operating “responsible purchasing practices, farmer support…” (Starbucks, 2016) also corporate social responsibility (CSR). Additionally, their tactic is utilizing the “Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices” (Starbucks, 2016), wherein this approach is the first set of sustainability benchmarks in the coffee industry and is certified by third-party logistics professionals. The C.A.F.E. Practices has assisted Starbucks in relation to generating a “long-term supply of high-quality coffee” (Starbucks, 2016) and influencing the lives of the farmers and their communities. Furthermore, Starbucks utilizes economies of scales in their inbound logistics activities by developing outstanding supply chain procedures by using C.A.F.E. and also includes collaborating internationally with managers discussing strategic alliances through suppliers for their products. Starbucks have recently

Named after a character in the classic story of Moby Dick, Starbucks Coffee has emerged as the world 's leader in retail, roasting, and branding of specialty coffees for millions of customers worldwide since its 1971 founding in Seattle 's Pike Place Market in the state of Washington. Still headquartered in Seattle, Starbucks Coffee Company has expanded to stores in all 50 states and in 43 countries outside of the United States.

The question is what exactly goes into the process from cocoa beans in a field to a steaming cup of delicious coffee. Starbucks has created an amazing strategy of Supply Chain Management that spans across almost nineteen countries, that means cocoa beans can come from one country while milk could come from an entirely different nation hundreds of miles away. Through this global resource span Starbucks can expand the company and reach more countries than ever before. Starbucks also makes sure that they supply the best ingredients to their coffee drinkers for a lower price. All raw materials are sent to roasting manufacturing and packaging plants. Starbucks itself has six roasting manufactories, which seems very few for such a big company, but they are using a very effective centralized system.