Howard Schultz
speaker
633 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2024
last heard Jun 2024
Howard Schultz’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I think we should talk about that.
Yeah.
The joint venture relationships that we've established, some goes back almost 30 years, in the Middle East, in Latin and Central America, now in Italy, in the EU, in India. And what does it mean to be your partner? Every country is different depending on the economics of that country, the political issues.
Some countries have been an 80-20, Starbucks owns 80, they own 20, some are 50-50, some of the 80-20 started out as 80 for us and they bought it in over the way. It depends. But the key thing is, whether it's Alberto Tirado in Latin and Central America, Mohammed Alshai in the Middle East, The Tata Group in India, the Percossi family in Italy, they understand the culture and values of Starbucks.
And so tactically, you said it's not a franchise in the traditional way. What are Starbucks responsible for and what is the partner responsible for?
Starbucks is responsible for roasting the coffee, for all the recipes which are consistent with Starbucks worldwide. a co-design to the store where we're designing the store with the JV or the licensed partner, and they control all the operations.
And so all of Starbucks' franchise or licensed stores are done in this way where there's a partner in a country. Yes.
There are no individual licensed franchises of any kind unless it's certain real estate that we can't get that we want access to, like a roadway on a highway in Switzerland. It's something odd. I see.
And airports are this way, right?
Airports are master licensed with the master licensee, like whoever has it in Marriott or whoever has it. I gotcha. Or Target that has 2,000 Starbucks stores. And those are Target operated? Yes. I see.
And great partner. And Brian Cornell, great guy. And it's interesting. Basically, half of Starbucks stores look like the platonic ideal of coming out of the Starbucks HQ, here is how we imagine this store to be. And half of them are, there's some reason why we alone can't do this and need a partner. And you spend a lifetime doing this.
Ideally, you want the customer experience to be the same worldwide, regardless of the shape and size of the store, where it's located.
Makes sense.
Which is not always the case. I admit that.
So one market that we haven't talked about that I want to ask you about while we're in this, and then we'll get to Playbook, is Italy. Yeah. The whole thing came out of Milan. Right. And yet for decades. 50 years. No Starbucks. 50 years. No Starbucks in Italy. Yeah. And the belief, at least as I see it, is they've perfected the coffeehouse concept. Don't bring an imitation in here.
But it's worked. It's working phenomenally well. Why is Starbucks being so well received in Italy?
So I know I'm going to be chastised for what I'm about to say, but it's true. By and large, coffee in Italy is not as good as it once was. There are certain coffee companies that have maintained the standard, but by and large, the coffee is not as good. I'm going to be killed for that, but that's my truth.
I didn't think we earned the right to go to Italy until we were really ready to present ourselves in the best possible way. Because I knew the knives would be out for us in ways that we couldn't even possibly imagine, given the history and the cultural relevance of espresso in the coffee bar. And so we waited and waited and waited until the roastery.
And so before we get to Italy, I have to explain the roastery for you.
Please. I mean, the first time I went in there, you know, kid in a candy store, wide eyes.
Showing 481–500 of 633 · page 25 of 32
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