* History Three Seattle friends started the company- Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin, and Zev Siegl. The original name of the first store was opened its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market on March 29, 1971. Later, the name was changed to the Starbucks coffee company. Starbucks’ original logo was a chocolate brown, bare-breasted mermaid siren with long hair, encircled by the company name. Today’s contemporary green logo sports a more updated and modest mermaid (Bussing-Burks, 2009).
* Product Line Starbucks stores purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, rich-brewed, Italian style espresso beverages, and a choice of regular or decaffeinated coffee beverages; moreover, a variety of fresh pastries and other food items, sodas, juices, teas, and coffee-related accessories and equipment (“Starbucks Corporation①”, 2012). Starbucks also introduce new flavors drinks every year; for instance, Starbucks introduces New Frappuccino Blended Beverage Flavors, which are Mocha Cookie Crumble and Chocolate cookie Crumble Crème on May, 2012.
* Current Status Starbucks Corporation is the leading retailer and roaster for brand specialty coffee in the world, with 17,224 stores in more than 50 countries. Starbucks reported that it earned $382.1 million, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Jan.1, 2012. (“Starbucks Corporation②”, 2012)
Starbucks’s process cycles
< Process flow diagram >
There are critical four steps. First step is receiving raw material, second step is quality testing, third step is final product testing and last step is delivering to customers. Each steps also are classified specific process.
Starbuck’s Supply chain strategy
Nowadays, the biggest challenge for the multinational corporation is that the cost of supply chain expenses extremely increases while the sales decrease. For the Starbucks Corporation, supply chain expenses are a main cost