At Starbucks Cold is Hot

Starbucks has been leading in restaurant industry in sales growth and unit growth for over 20 years with little competition or challenge.  All the while Starbucks continues to expand it retail partnerships around the world selling ‘’kyan coffee” (canned) and selling  lots of it elevating the Starbucks brands relevance with consumers according to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Soltuions®.

Starbucks partnership have been and continue to be the right fuel to drive new electricity into Starbucks  top line sales and bottom line profits according to Johnson.  In the minds-eye of Johnson, there is one dominate element that will power success within retail and foodservice over the coming years and that is partnerships. 

Johnson calls it the new electricity that is partnerships specifically strategic partnerships.   The new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh food, grocerant consultants, urban farming (produce, seafood, etc.), autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, cash-less payments, digital hand held marketing.

Retailers the ilk of Starbucks in order to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable in some form.  That will require brands to embrace new fresh food partnerships more now than ever before according to Johnson.

Starbuck’s investments with cold CPG beverage products have now driven it in store focus to revolve around cold beverage offerings as they continue to expand its lunch menu edifying a grocerant niche mix and match meal bundling opportunity that is second to none in the industry according to Johnson.

Rosalind Gates Brewer, chief operating officer and group president of Americas, stated Starbucks plans to continue investing in cold beverage innovation and expanding its afternoon menu offerings.… Cold isn’t just for summertime anymore,”

Brewer continued “Five years ago, cold was about 37% of our beverage mix, and now it’s over 50%. With 2017, total cold beverage sales in the U.S. company and operated stores reaching nearly $5 billion. So, we’re building multibillion-dollar platforms within cold.”

Ms. Brewer called Starbucks the “market leader” in the cold brew coffee category and announced the company will be expanding the availability of its Nitro Cold Brew platform from 2,300 stores around the world to 4,000 by the end of the year.

Grocerant niche mix and match bundling drives sales.  Brewer Stated “…the biggest opportunity for food innovation is for lunch,” …we will offer customers more of what they are expecting and elevating our current Bistro Box line, which has grown at a rate of 20% in each of the past two years. We will also continue to roll out Mercato regionally, with more than 1,000 stores by the end of the year.”

All good retailers understand that selling hot food hot and cold food cold is job one.  Success does leave clues and remembering that evolving food retail includes both hot and cold foods.  Are you evolving your retail food platform to include fresh? Or are you evolving your restaurant platform to include branded CPG products?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant