Starbucks : The Coffee Industry

As the world’s number one specialty coffee retailer, Starbucks sells coffee drinks, food items, coffee beans, and coffee-related accessories and equipment. In addition, Starbucks sells whole-bean coffees through a specialty sales group and grocery stores. Starbucks has grown beyond coffee into related businesses such as coffee-flavoured ice cream and ready-to-drink coffee beverages. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Starbucks business strategy, customer value proposition, company’s operations and the risks to financial results and reporting in the short term.

Within the coffee industry Starbucks Corporations has grown from a small shop to a leading coffee distributor, proving to have financial strength and determination to continue growth. With the weakening economy the continued success of Starbucks

Starbucks is dominant coffee brand in North America, which also is well-known worldwide. Established in 1971 as coffee shop oriented to a niche of coffee purists, in late 1980’s it turned to be a constantly growing chain of stores that sold whole-beans and premium-priced coffee to mostly affluent, well-educated customers. In years 1992-2002 company was showing at least 5% annual growth. And by 2002 Starbucks was serving already 20M customers in 5886 stores (both operated and licensed) around the globe, had $3.3 billion net revenues and was opening 3 new stores a day in average.

Since Starbucks entered the coffee retail business, the company has made many trade-off business decisions. The first major trade-off was made when Howard Schultz wanted to acquire present day Starbucks from three entrepreneurs Baldwin, Siegel and Bowker. Therefore, Schultz prior to the acquisition made the trade-off to open his own coffee bar in 1986 instead of staying at Starbucks as the manager of retail sales and marketing. A bold feat, Schultz was able to replicate success and was offered to buy Starbucks for $4 million. At the time of the acquisition, many investors, including the former Starbucks owners, would not expect that the American consumer would pay a premium for coffee products. Schultz, after calculating the opportunity cost, was convinced that Starbucks would become a large coffee chain not only in the United States but internationally too. Reflecting this approach, Schultz’s trade-off worked. Starbucks, according to our book has revenue exceeding $13 billion and nearly 200,000 employees. The company has also expanded to 40 countries with 17,000 stores (Hill et al., 2015).

Starbucks Corporation, generally known, as Starbucks Coffee is the leading retailer and a brand of world’s forte coffee in the world, with more than 15,000 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim, wherever in this world where premium quality coffee is in demand. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world ahead of UK rival Costa Coffee, with 20737 stores in 63 countries and territories, including 11910 in the United States, 1496 in China, 1442 in Canada, 1052 in Japan and 772 in the United Kingdom. The first Starbucks was open in 1970. The name was inspired from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, a definitive American novel regarding the 19th century whaling industry. The nautical name matches seamlessly for a store that imports the world’s finest coffees to the cold thirsty people of Seattle. In May 1998, Starbucks have finally successfully entered the European market through its acquirement of 65 Coffee Company stores initially originated from Seattle in the UK. Both companies shared a common culture, focusing on a great commitment to customized coffee, similar company values and a mutual respect.

Starbucks financial statements were analyzed for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2015. Like all public companies, annual and quarterly financial statements are required to allow regulators and other interested parties to analyze the financial status and management decision making of the company. This analysis focuses on the results of Starbucks most recent published annual report containing their balance sheets, statement of earnings and cash flows. These statements will be analyzed against the results of one of its competitors, Dunkin Donuts, to investigate how the two companies compare to each other. It was noted that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts do not have corresponding fiscal year ends. The data therefore is not directly comparable since the reports do not reflect the same time period of data but should provide additional insight. The paper will attempt to provide a brief analysis of Starbucks operations in terms of its liquidity, leverage, activity, profitability and growth ratios used by analysts in the industry.

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?

operation success. Investing into the raw coffee market is not the only niche Starbucks hones in

Enthusiast coffee drinker or not, people of all generations have heard of the popular franchise Starbucks Coffee Company. Opened in 1971, Starbucks started off as a single store located in Seattle. Today the well-known coffee chain has spread their name almost all over the globe. With over 21,000 locations in 64 countries, Starbucks is by far the largest leading coffee company in the world. Starbucks Coffee has different values compared to other coffee corporations that do not see the importance in giving back to communities around them and treating their employees as equals, all while striving to provide their customers with high quality products that are ethically sourced.

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.

There is also heavy investment in property, plant, and equipment with additions totaling $1,151.2M. This type of investment show us that Starbucks is focused on expansion using cash from operations. They have a significant amount of cash coming in from operations, and money going out in PP&E. The analyst should not be concerned that Starbucks is borrowing money for negative reasons, and they are looking very strong from an operating and investing standpoint. They are effectively earning income and turning it into cash.

The company overview is made to deliver an overview and structure of Starbucks Corporation. In addition, the company overview contains timeline of Starbucks, business segments, leadership organizational chart, products, legal entities, success factors, and risks that Starbucks face.

The team sought out true customer needs through “My Starbucks Ideas”, which is a link on the Starbucks website for consumers to propose ideas to the corporation, from product involvement to experience ideas. We found an overwhelming amount of input for gluten free and healthier food options. The most important target customer factors that the team decided to take action on are people’s dietary restrictions and lifestyle choices. These two ideas directed our choices to present gluten-free options in the four most popular pastries and highly nourishing smoothie bowls, all of which are less than 300 calories.

Every day millions of people all over the world walk into Starbucks for their java shot, but it is more than the overpriced coffee that brings people in day after day to their Starbucks stores across the world. Starbucks offers a setting and an environment created by the friendly and helpful staff. They are always around to provide excellent customer service. Managers at Starbucks put tremendous attention into hiring good “people people.” Their hiring and training process is designed to provide a customer-centric experience. People buy Starbucks for what it represents and the status symbol that comes along with it. It has been one of the fastest-growing brands in annual BusinessWeek surveys of the top 100 global brands. Starbucks '

Starbucks is an organization I am familiar with because I worked for them. Starbucks started as a small coffee company in the United States selling bulk coffee. They have grown to an international coffee house that serves one custom cup of coffee at a time in an atmosphere that provides spaces for collaboration or alone time. It has become an entertainment designation between customer’s home and work. The company inspires to have a successful globalization impact. Starbucks works to incorporate technology into the heart of its company, resulting in increased cash flow. It strives to be a leader in its industry; it is economic strong, it continues to break barriers to bring products to market, and it continues to diversify its