Essay about Starbucks Financial Analysis

Thesis: While Starbucks has been an industry leader in the specialty coffee market, rapid overexpansion and current economic conditions have caused it to lose its market dominance. Is the company strong enough to recover?

The “Coffee Wars – The Big Three: Starbucks, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts” article focuses on the company analysis of the Starbucks brand and how its main competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts, has affected their brand and driven competition higher. Even though there are many companies trying to enter the specialty coffee market, these three companies own the majority of the market share. With Starbucks’ top quality and above average prices they hold a different market than the fast coffee/food market of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks; yet the competitive moves Dunkin’ Donuts has made over the years in order to compete with Starbucks and surpass McDonald’s has driven competition up between all three companies. The competition has stiffened ever more in the past ten years due to the changing economy. This led to “the big three” to come up with different techniques to gain competitive advantage over the other. Although the competition between these companies is to gain most of the market share, consumers are still loyal to a certain brand; this makes it difficult to gain each other’s clientele. McDonald’s continues to appeal to customers who want value and speed, Dunkin’ Donuts focuses on the middle-class, while Starbucks a customer who desires a higher quality product along with being recognized for using the brand.

KEVIN R. JOHNSON, 48, has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Juniper Networks, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance networking products and services, since September 2008.

The cost of revenue, or goods sold, is 86.3% of the total expense distribution for Starbucks.

2) Garthwiate, Craig; Busse, Meghan; Brown, Jennifer; Merkley, Greg “Starbucks: A Story of Growth” Harvard Business Publishing, July 2012.

Starbucks will be the first come in your mind when you want to have a cup of coffee. Don’t you feel curious about why is Starbucks so successful? This report explains how Starbucks take advantage in consumer purchase decision making process, how does Starbucks attract customer, how does Starbucks segment its market and new trends in society affect purchasing process.

In this assignment, a savvy financial analyst researching companies in which to invest a U.S. publically-traded company that would be a good investment was chosen. After a lengthy search, a company that my family is unduly familiar with, Starbucks, was chosen and in the following pages a financial analysis will be described.

We evaluated the financial performance of Starbucks by computing various ratios based on the company’s most current audited financial statements. Specifically, we evaluated the firm’s liquidity, operating profitability, capital structure, and market value. Additionally, we identified Starbucks’ competitors and benchmarked the company’s performance against the peer group. Finally, we defined what we believe the key factors are causing the current condition. Our assessment and results are presented below.

Regarding demographics, we can divide the business into age, family, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, race, generation, nationality and social class. For distinguishing customers ' group, demographics variables are the most popular one to use (Kotler, P. 2003). Starbucks ' essential target market are men and women matured 25 to 40. They represent just about a large portion of (49 percent) of its aggregate business. The young adults comprises up to 40 percent of Starbucks market. According to Price, Starbucks most of the target market is socio economic class C1 and B. Just because of higher price, people who are included in this class can easily afford Starbucks coffee.

Economic pressures such as rising gas prices and food prices, combined with increased competition from Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds, are taking their toll on this popular chain (James, 2008). Hit hard by the slowing economy, Starbucks corporation is closing 600 stores, or 8.5 percent of its U.S. company-operated portfolio, signaling

Starbucks (Starbucks) is a publicly held company that sells gourmet coffees, as well as, a sandwich and desert menu. They operate in the United States, as well as, international countries. Starbucks has delicious coffees that are very popular with the public and has a growing popularity. By comparing Starbuck's financial information with the financial information of one of their biggest competitor's, Dunkin Donuts (Dunkin Donuts), it will show the actual competitive edge of Starbucks.

But at the beginning of this century affected by the economic downturn Starbucks financial growth of same-store sales and margins showed a 70% decline in net income and had experienced its first ever decline in quarterly sales (Grant, Robert Contemporary Strategy Analysis 2010). This paper will look at Starbucks’ mission statement and guiding principles

The company that I am writing about is Starbucks, the international coffee shop chain. The company's financial statements for this analysis are from the FY2011 Annual Report and 10-K. The company has 10787 stores in the United States, of which 38% are franchised and the remainder are company-owned. The franchise model is more common when the company operates internationally. There are 6216 Starbucks stores internationally and of these 63% are franchises, with just 37% company-owned. The franchise model for international expansion has been utilized to help Starbucks expand quickly in foreign countries and to mitigate foreign political risk and to ensure that the product/service offering is tailored to local tastes (Thompson, 2012). The company is now in the process of buying back some overseas franchise stores in order to retain more profits for itself (Franchise Press, 2011). This paper will take a look at the company's most recent annual report to analyze the financial statements.

Like its major competitors, Starbucks ' marketing strategy has relied heavily on establishing a strong brand identity and promoting brand loyalty sufficient enough to induce customers to pay a reasonable premium for its products. Starbucks has a competitive advantage over its competitors because in the past few years they have introduced a ‘Starbucks Evening’ menu, which includes

Starbucks provide a large in store seating with free wi fi and a take-out service which only a few retail shops offer. The main target customers for Starbucks are office workers, with enough income, whom are able to afford the high prices of their products (Gaudio, 2003). The company has worked hard to establish itself as the brand leader with its branding as the most frequently drank coffee and noticeable brand logo. Introduction of promotions like the Starbucks Card, allows a more convenient way for a person to
pay for
your
drinks
and
earn
rewards
for
your purchase (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2011).
Furthermore, in‐store
promotions
accompanied
by
new
products and
amenities like free internet use are all strategies that Starbucks use to maintain their position in the market (Vasudha, 2011).