Starbucks Growth Strategy

Komal Ashfaq

Starbuck’s Growth Strategy

Starbucks is in an enviable position – it has about 18,000 stores world-wide of which roughly 13,000 are in the North America and 255 are in New York City. A recent survey by American Express/SAP ranks Starbucks 49th among the Top 100 global retailers.  It is one of the most admired, respected and trusted brand in the world, with 19,000 stores in 62 countries serving approximately 70 million customers a week, employing over 200,000 people. How did Starbucks grow to be so big from a simple coffee shop? Starbucks has grown from a simple coffee shop in U.S. to a worldwide phenomenon, offering a wider variety of products.

International Expansion

Today Starbucks is in 62 countries around the globe, including most recently India and there are more to come. So far Starbucks has over 8,000 coffee shops now operating outside the United States, and is seeking to continue to expand in countries with a new emerging middle class with discretionary income to spend. This week also Starbucks also celebrated the tenth anniversary of its establishment in Chile and Peru now with over 100 Starbucks stores, employing 2,000 Starbucks employees and serving well over one million customers every month. Starbucks Colombia expects to open its first store in Bogota in 2014 and has aggressive plans to open 50 or more stores in Bogota and other major cities throughout Columbia over the next five years.

Consumer Product Segment

Starbucks launched their Starbucks VIA instant coffee in 2009, introducing it first in their stores and were there for almost a year after which they brought VIA into the grocery channel, creating almost 100,000 points of distribution for VIA alongside their roast and ground coffee business. VIA has been a home run for the company and over time will be a billion-dollar business.

The question was, if Starbucks products are sitting on the grocery shelf, what could be done to leverage the loyalty system of Starbucks? So,...