Starbucks Unveils Target for Food, Beer and Wine Offerings

SEATTLE (The Seattle Times/TNS) —

A Starbucks run is a common feature of many Americans’ mornings. But in its latest five-year projections, unveiled Thursday, the company is betting that it will entice customers at lunch and in the evening as well, as it seeks new ways to extract growth out of its sprawling coffee-shop empire.

Food and evening offerings will be critical to the company’s plans to nearly double its revenue to $30 billion in five years.

Executives said the company plans to double its U.S. food revenue during that period, to $4 billion a year. Also, by the end of the decade, up to a quarter of its U.S. stores will offer beer, wine and savory tapas, a model that the company refers to as “Starbucks Evenings.” Currently, only about 30 stores out of more than 12,000 U.S. outlets offer that option, executives said.

At a biennial meeting with investors, the company also unveiled a new target for its China expansion: It aims to have 3,000 stores there by 2019. The new forecast comes in the wake of great success in that country: Starbucks had originally aimed to have 1,500 stores there by the end of 2015, but it looks like it will reach that target in the “coming few weeks,” Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead said in an interview.

The move to extend Starbucks’ empire over different parts of the day comes as the company strives to maintain its breakneck pace of growth, which has created big expectations among shareholders.

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