Starbucks 2010 Annual Report Download - page 4

Warm regards,
Howard Schultz
chairman, president and chief executive offi cer
A New Blueprint for Growth
Going forward, we will be combining the company’s unique strengths in ways that will allow us to go to market in a
way that only Starbucks can.
We believe we have the potential to build a portfolio of $1 billion brands inside and outside our stores using a unique
strategy. Sourcing, roasting and serving high-quality coffee will remain our core, but we are also pursuing sustainable,
profi table growth with a more diversifi ed, multi-channel and multi-brand business model. In the near term, we are focusing
on Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew, Frappuccino® beverages—which is already a $2 billion platform—and the Tazo® tea brand.
Inaddition we have also made signifi cant progress with Seattle’s Best Coffee.® After unleashing its exciting new brand
identity and expansion strategy, a freshly brewed cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee® is now offered in more than 40,000 locations,
up tenfold since 2009.
Our new go-to-market strategy leverages Starbucks unique business structure: our global footprint of retail stores; our
distribution network and presence in grocery stores; and the authentic emotional connections we establish with our
customers in stores, with our loyalty programs and through digital media. Each of these points of connection complements
the other, encouraging our customers to try new products, adopt new rituals and make more frequent purchases. We saw this
model play out extremely well with Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew, and we are tremendously optimistic about its potential to
drive growth with our other brands.
Starbucks 40th Anniversary
It is hard to believe, but March 2011 marks Starbucks 40th year in business since we opened our fi rst store in Pike Place
Market in Seattle. This is a major milestone, and we will be celebrating in a variety of ways that honor our past and refl ect
where we are headed.
One of the most relevant ways to celebrate our anniversary is by giving back to our neighborhoods. Community involvement
is central to Starbucks mission, and soon our partners and customers around the world will more actively initiate and
participate in a new array of local community-service projects that we believe will result in longer-term community support.
Personally, I can think of no better way to celebrate and I hope you will all join us in these efforts.
This year, we will roll out our elegant new brand identity with an evolved logo that embraces our history while granting us
more freedom and fl exibility to think beyond coffee and even beyond our stores. A great deal of thought went into creating
the new design, and we believe it sets the stage for our next chapter. Finally, because anniversaries are also a time to refl ect
on the past, a book documenting our transformation will be published in late March. In Onward: How Starbucks Fought for
Its Life without Losing Its Soul, I candidly share our journey, both the highs and the lows, because understanding and better
appreciating how we transformed will, I feel, enhance our future.
This is a very exciting time for Starbucks, yet we have emerged from our past humbled, refusing to take anything for granted,
and determined to grow with as intense a level of discipline and innovation as we have ever demonstrated. As a global
consumer brand with almost 17,000 stores and growing businesses outside of our stores, we believe that we are in a rare
position to internally offset external pressures from what will likely continue to be a very challenging global economy in the
near term.
At every stage of our journey, we have been fortunate to receive the support of
our partners, our customers, our shareholders, business partners, farmers and
suppliers. Thank you all for standing by us, and for continuing to believe in what
Starbucks stands for and in our ability to deliver.