Starbucks Supply Chain Analysis

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Starbucks is an American company that was established in 1971 in Seattle, WA. Starbucks is the leading roaster, maker and retailer of special coffee around world. Starbucks employed more than 182,000 employees across 19,767 branches operated & licensed stores in 62 countries. They do the purchasing and roasting of high-quality coffees that they sell, along with handcrafted coffee, tea and other beverages and a variety of fresh food items, through company-operated stores. The company also sells different types of coffee and tea products and licenses their trademarks through other channels such as licensed stores, grocery and national foodservice accounts. Starbucks also markets its products mix with other brand names within its portfolio of …show more content…

Starbucks is managing its own supply chain to control the process for quality. Putting first “if the farmer does not get a good price for the green coffee beans, they then would not invest in fertilizer and the maintenance involved in growing quality coffee beans” (Schultz and Jones, 1997; Wikipedia II). Roasting a coffee has to be attuned in a way that the coffee will not under or over roasted. If the coffee beans left on the shelf for too long they go musty, so the correct amount of inventory is a an important factor, which in turn relates to the effectiveness of supply chain management. The water used to make the coffee will affect the taste. If the coffee is brewed improperly the taste is affected. If the coffee sits in a pot more than 20 minutes, it is no longer considered fresh. Serving quality coffee in ceramic cups enhances the flavor, but makes it not viable for carry outs. Because of these conditions, Starbucks prefers to handle its own supply chain, open company-owned stores, and has resisted franchising in fear of giving up its control over selling a high-quality product. Because coffee was the core service at Starbucks, the job of purchasing was not outsourced. The experience came with the original owners of Starbucks when only coffee beans were sold. The entrepreneurs buying the coffee were considered connoisseurs of quality coffee and had many years of “coffee” experience. As a result of this experience, customers were educated about coffee, and it became a value-added service at Starbucks. The more the customer knows about how coffee is grown and prepared, the more loyal they become, and the more willing they are to pay for a high quality cup of coffee. The best quality coffee beans have always roasted till it becomes dark which is what

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