Starbucks Environmental Analysis
Starbucks Corporation, an American company founded in 1971 in Seattle, WA, is a premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee around world. Starbucks has about 182,000 employees across 19,767 company operated & licensed stores in 62 countries. Their product mix includes roasted and handcrafted high-quality/premium priced coffees, tea, a variety of fresh food items and other beverages. They also sell a variety of coffee and tea products and license 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 companies, which include Teavana, Tazo, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Starbucks VIA, Starbucks Refreshers, Evolution Fresh, La Boulange and Verismo. Starbucks had total revenue of $14.89 billion as of September 29th, 2013 (Starbucks, 2013).
The purpose of an environmental analysis, in the context of strategic planning, is to identify ways that changes in the business environment can directly influence an organization. The following paper examines Starbucks’ internal and external environment, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends.
External Analysis
Starbucks primarily operates and competes in the retail coffee industry. According to Starbucks SEC filings the industry experienced a major slowdown in 2009 due to the economic crisis and changing consumer tastes, with the industry revenue in the US declining 6.6% to $25.9 billion (Starbucks, 2013). Before this, the industry had a decade of consistent growth. Due to the economic slump, consumers spent less on luxuries like eating out, choosing to purchase low-price items instead of high-priced coffee drinks. The industry grew at a low annualized average growth rate of 0.9% from 2008 till 2013 with current industry revenues at $29 billion in the US. The industry is now forecasted to grow at an annualized rate of 3.9%...