Austin American-Statesman

Starbucks plans 1,500 more cafes

Company expects to have 20,000 cafes globally by ’14.

- NICK ut / associated Press By Candice Choi

parts, retail merchandis­e for January sales and repair parts for Redbox video kiosks were among the items that could be late in getting to their destinatio­ns around the

Taking into account Canada and South America, the company plans to add a total of 3,000 new cafes in its broader Americas region.

Worldwide, the company says it will have more than 20,000 cafes by 2014, up from its current count of about 18,000. Much of that growth will come from China, which the company says will surpass Canada as its second-biggest market.

Although Starbucks has been intensifyi­ng its growth overseas and building its packagedgo­ods business back at country, Wong said.

Television reports showed huge cargo vessels moving into port, and a line of trucks waiting to enter a terminal.

Clerical workers who home, the majority of its revenue still comes from its more than 11,100 cafes in the United States.

In an interview ahead of its investor day, CEO Howard Schultz said the U.S. expansion plans are based “on the current strength of our business”

Just a few months ago, the company had predicted it would open just 1,000 new cafes in the country over the next five years.

The upbeat expansion plans mark a turnaround from Starbucks’ struggles during the recession.

After hitting a rough patch, the company said that shippers were outsourcin­g their jobs struck on Nov. 27 and thousands of dockworker­s in the same union refused to cross picket lines, paralyzing

Another Starbucks may soon pop up around the corner, with the world’s biggest coffee company planning to add at least 1,500 cafes in the U.S. over the next five years.

The plan, which would boost the number of Starbucks cafes in the country by about 13 percent, was announced at the company’s investor day in New York Wednesday. brought back Schultz as CEO in 2008 and embarked on massive restructur­ing effort that included closing 10 percent of its U.S. stores.

Cliff Burrows, who heads Starbucks’ domestic business, said the problem wasn’t that Starbucks was oversatura­ted, but that the company hadn’t been careful about its store openings. In the years leading up to the downturn, the company was opening well over 1,000 stores a year. That led to cafes in locations where signs or traffic might not be optimal, he said.

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