NEW YORK – Starbucks announced this week its five-year strategic plan to grow revenue by 10% and open approximately 12,000 new stores globally by 2021, bringing its total store count to 37,000.
“Industry-leading innovation is driving our core business and creating further separation from competitors all around the world,” said Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO. “Our Roasteries and Starbucks Reserve stores will further transform—and elevate—the Starbucks experience we deliver to our customers, and are laying the foundation for our next wave of profitable, global growth.”
Since opening two years ago, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle has become recognized as a coffee-forward retail experience. The company plans to accelerate the presentation of the Roastery experience around the world, opening its next Roastery in Shanghai in 2017, Tokyo and New York City in 2018, and a fifth location in Europe to be announced early next year.
Each Roastery will serve as the foundation for Starbucks Reserve stores, a new retail format that will integrate the company’s new Italian food partner, Princi. The first of these new stores will open in Seattle and Chicago in the second half of FY17, with plans to open 1,000 or more globally over time. In addition, the company plans to open standalone Princi stores in Seattle, New York and Chicago in late 2017 and in early 2018. The company is also extending elements of the high-end Roastery experience to its core Starbucks stores, adding Starbucks Reserve experience bars in up to 20% of its total portfolio (including new and renovated locations) by 2021.
Starbucks Reserve Roasteries will serve as an innovation pipeline for the chain. Earlier this year, Starbucks introduced its first Roastery-inspired limited-time beverage offering, the Smoked Butterscotch Latte, followed by Nitro Cold Brew, which is now available in more than 500 U.S. company-owned locations and select stores in Canada and China. In January 2017, Starbucks will introduce the Cascara Latte, made with the fruit of the coffee cherry.
Starbucks is also expanding its food menu with products such as Sous Vide Egg Bites in January 2017, a wheat-free, low calorie, high protein, convenient breakfast. In the spring, the company will launch a certified gluten-free breakfast sandwich, expand its Bistro Box platform and grow its regional rollout of organic soups.