Starbucks Plan Global Restructuring to Spur International Growth

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 13 July 2011

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13 July 2011

Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks Corp. will introduce a new global operational structure in September this year, as it moves ahead with plans to increase its current international revenues from 20 percent per annum to more than 50 percent.

Presently, The company has around 11,000 outlets in the US and Canada, compared to just 6,000 outlets in the rest of the world.

Under the new structure, Starbucks will expand its existing business units – US and International – to three distinct divisions – the Americas, China and Asia Pacific, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Each division comes with its own president, who will oversee all operational and development plans. John Culver, who now heads Starbucks Coffee International, will oversee China and Asia Pacific. Cliff Burrows, the current U.S. president, will run the Americas region. Michelle Gass, now president of Seattle's Best Coffee, will manage EMEA.

Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO of Starbucks Corp. told the Seattle Times that the changes were made to "take three of our top people and put them against our biggest opportunity," which is to boost international growth, including the sale of coffee and drinks in grocery and convenience stores all over the world.

Schultz, who successfully turned around the company's fortunes after reassuming his position in January 2008, took pains to stress that the restructuring had no bearing on his involvement in the company.

“I'm not going anywhere," he said. "It has nothing to do with me stepping back or anything like that. It's taking advantage of what we think is a big-time opportunity with our strongest talent."

China and Brazil have been targeted as two key markets for rapid expansion. Furthermore, the coffee giant has also made plans to enter the Indian and Vietnamese markets in the near future.

"Our company performance over the past two years has positioned Starbucks for the significant international opportunities ahead and the acceleration of our global growth strategy,” said Schultz in a company release.

"Today, we are successfully executing our multi-brand, multi-channel strategy and we believe the leadership and organizational moves announced today will optimize our speed and focus going forward."


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