Starbucks - History

History

The first Starbucks opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971 by three partners: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. The three were inspired by coffee roasting entrepreneur Alfred Peet, whom they knew personally, to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment. Originally the company was to be called Pequod after a whaling boat from Moby-Dick but this name was rejected by some of the co-founders. The company was instead named after the chief mate on the Pequod, Starbuck.

From 1971–1976, the first Starbucks was at 2000 Western Avenue; it then was relocated to 1912 Pike Place. The company only sold roasted coffee and did not yet brew coffee to sell. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet's, then began buying directly from growers.

In 1984, the original owners of Starbucks, led by Jerry Baldwin, took the opportunity to purchase Peet's. During the 1980s total sales of coffee in the USA were falling, but sales of specialty coffee increased, forming 10% of the market in 1989, compared to 3% in 1983. By 1986 the company had 6 stores in Seattle and had only just began to sell espresso coffee. Howard Schultz In 1987, the original owners sold the Starbucks chain to Schultz who rebranded some of his own Il Giornale coffee outlets as Starbucks' and quickly began to expand. In the same year, Starbucks opened its first locations outside Seattle at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chicago, Illinois. By 1989 there were 46 stores across the Northwest and Midwest in 1989 and Starbucks was roasting over 2,000,000 pounds (910,000 kg) of coffee a year. At the time of its initial public offering on the stock market in June 1992, Starbucks had grown to 140 outlets and had a revenue of $73.5m, up from $1.3m in 1987. It's market value was $271m. The 12% portion of the company sold raised the company around $25m which would help it double the number of stores over the next two years. By September 1992, the share prize had risen had risen 70% to over 100 times the earnings per share of the previous year.

The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996. Starbucks entered the U.K. market in 1998 with the $83 million acquisition of the then 60-outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company, re-branding all the stores as Starbucks. In September 2002, Starbucks opened its first store in Latin America, at Mexico City.

In 1999, Starbucks experimented with eateries in the San Francisco Bay area through a restaurant chain called Circadia. These restaurants were soon "outed" as Starbucks establishments and converted to Starbucks cafes.

In October 2002, Starbucks established a coffee trading company in Lausanne, Switzerland to handle purchases of green coffee. All other coffee-related business continued to be managed from Seattle.

In April 2003, Starbucks completed the purchase of Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises, bringing the total number of Starbucks-operated locations worldwide to more than 6,400. On September 14, 2006, rival Diedrich Coffee announced that it would sell most of its company-owned retail stores to Starbucks. This sale includes the company-owned locations of the Oregon-based Coffee People chain. Starbucks converted the Diedrich Coffee and Coffee People locations to Starbucks, although the Portland airport Coffee People locations were excluded from the sale.

In August 2003, Starbucks opened its first store in South America in Lima, Peru.

The Starbucks location in the former imperial palace in Beijing closed in July 2007. The coffee shop had been a source of ongoing controversy since its opening in 2000 with protesters objecting that the presence of the American chain in this location "was trampling on Chinese culture." In 2007, the company opened its first store in Russia, ten years after first registering a trademark there.

In March 2008 they purchased the manufacturer of the Clover Brewing System. They began testing the "fresh-pressed" coffee system at several Starbucks locations in Seattle, California, New York and Boston.

In early 2008, Starbucks started a community website, My Starbucks Idea, designed to collect suggestions and feedback from customers. Other users comment and vote on suggestions. Journalist Jack Schofield noted that "My Starbucks seems to be all sweetness and light at the moment, which I don't think is possible without quite a lot of censorship". The website is powered by the Salesforce software.

In May 2008, a loyalty program was introduced for registered users of the Starbucks Card (previously simply a gift card) offering perks such as free Wi-Fi Internet access, no charge for soy milk & flavored syrups, and free refills on brewed drip coffee.

A store in Seattle known for its use of the corporation's new ideas reopened in the fall 2010 with a modified interior design in which the espresso machines were placed in the middle of the store.

On November 14, 2012, Starbucks announced it will purchase Teavana for $620 million dollars in cash.