Go oat, brew cold [Adam Hester/The Image Bank via Getty Images]
A tall vanilla latte walks into a Porsche… Midlife crisis, Starbucks edition. The chain is celebrating its 50th birthday. Today, it's a corporate giant worth $131B that accounts for 40% of US coffeehouses. In honor of the big 50, we're taking a look back:
Cold brew, hot growth... Today Starbucks has over 33K stores around the globe, up from 1K in 1996 and double what it had in 2010. Most Americans had never experienced "café culture" pre-Starbs. Now the US has 37K+ coffeehouses — Starbs accounts for a whopping ~15K. Since going public in 1992, Starbucks stock is up more than 300X, and has doubled over the past five years. It's the world's second most valuable restaurant brand, trailing only McDonald's. Two recent areas of focus:
"Premiumization" could be a frothy growth opp... Starbs has upped the dividend it pays to investors since 2010, when it first intro'd dividends. But to keep growing profit in the face of hot competition, Starbs might need more premiumization — fancy-fied products it can charge extra for. That's why it’s pushing premium treats like Beyond Meat breakfast sammies and Oatly iced coffees. We'll see if the premium push is still working when Starbucks reports earnings this month.