Starbucks Investor Relations Material

Starbucks is a chain of coffee houses founded and headquartered in Seattle, but with operations all over the world. The company has grown from a small outfit run by a couple of friends to a global powerhouse in the coffee industry and has become one of the world's most recognizable brands. One thing that is worth noting is that Starbucks doesn’t offer franchising opportunities, like Domino's, McDonalds, Wendy’s, and several other companies do. Instead, their stores are corporately owned and operated.

Starbucks was founded in 1971 by three partners: Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker. The first store was located in Seattle's historic Pikes Market and originally the company focused on selling high-quality coffee beans and equipment. However, in 1982, Howard Schultz joined the company and proposed the idea of creating a coffeehouse experience that was more akin to the one he’d found in Europe. Throughout the years, Starbucks expanded rapidly and went public in 1992. Today, Starbucks is a global coffeehouse chain with tens of thousands of stores worldwide, offering a wide range of items outside of just traditional coffee.

Right from the beginning, Starbucks has been focused on providing an appealing and inviting coffeehouse experience for its customers and guests. For many consumers, Starbucks has become the go-to place for meeting friends, catching up on work, or simply a place to enjoy a warm cup of coffee. This is something that the company takes great pride in, and places a heavy emphasis on. Today, customers can choose to order at the counter, in Starbucks’s popular app, or via drive-through.

While the main emphasis for Starbucks has always been various types of coffee, the company also offers a variety of different snacks and light meals. Adapting the menu to the seasons is also something that Starbucks has succeeded at, and popular choices such as pumpkin spiced lattes and other season-specific drinks rotate in and out of the menu.