Starbucks moves into on-trade in US with beer and wine offering

By Erin Smith

Published: 08 December, 2014

Last week Starbucks announced at its annual investor conference that it would begin serving beer, wine and 'evening' food in 3,000 of its 11,900 cafes in the US.

"By the end of fiscal year 2019, 20-25% of Starbucks stores in the US will offer the Starbucks Evenings experience, adding approximately $1 billion in revenue," according to a statement released by the company.

There are no plans of yet to expand its beer and wine offering outside of the US trial that it is running to help increase evening footfall.

Whiel at first glance this may not seem like a big threat to the UK on trade, where the chain operates over 700 stores, a large portion of the company's growth over the next five years is based on encouraging customers to visit stores more frequently and to expand globally in markets outside the US.

"Over the next five years, Starbucks will grow to nearly $30 billion in annual revenue with more than 30,000 stores globally," said Matt Ryan, global chief strategy officer.

In order to drive growth there are seven pillars that the company is focusing on including "grow store usage across day parts with new product offers. In addition to breakfast, create new food offerings for lunch, afternoon refreshment and snacks, and evenings," said Ryan

The coffee giant is forecasting major store expansion in the next few years. Kris Engskov, the president of Europe, Middle East and Asia said: "Starbucks expects to double EMEA store count over the next five years. Key drivers will be: improving store economics; new formats and channels; new strategic partnerships."

Starbucks has focused on China as a major growth opportunity and has been investing in the country significantly over the last several years.

"We opened on average one store per day last year. This year we have a high ambition. We will open one store every 18 hours, and I'm proud to announce we will open our 1,500th store by the end of this month," said Belinda Wong, president of Starbucks China.

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