Starbucks to focus on international expansion while US market is slow
Starbucks announced that it would not be opening too many coffee shops in US till the end of 2011, in an effort to adjust to the slower pace of growth in the US economy. The company will focus on expanding its overseas business in this time frame. Starbucks brought back its founder Howard Schultz in january this year to help turn around the company and create a new niche for itself apart from fast food chains such as McDonalds who are capitalizing on the high cost of coffee at Starbucks.
According to Schultz, the mortgage mess in the US has left consumers with less money to spend on leisure items such as specialized coffee. He added “We strongly believe it is not the competition … We don’t believe that we’ve saturated the market, but we do believe that we have a head wind the likes of which we’ve never seen.”
As an international customer of Starbucks, I am certainly looking forward to this strategy and hoping to see a Starbucks nearby!