New York Stock Exchange-listed coffee giant Starbucks Coffee Company and Taste Holdings yesterday announced a licensed partnership that will see Starbucks stores open across South Africa.
Shares in Taste Holdings surged 20% to a record high of R5 in early trade‚ valuing the company at R1.48-billion.
“We are very excited to be Starbucks’ partner in Southern Africa. As we’ve visited numerous Starbucks markets and partners around the world we’ve come to realise that we share similar core values‚ including a commitment to localisation and uplifting both direct and indirect partners‚” Taste chief executive Carlo Gonzaga said.
The licence agreement sees Taste owning the exclusive rights to develop Starbucks retail outlets in South Africa. As Taste is the licensee‚ it will own and operate the stores directly.
Founded in 1971‚ Starbucks Coffee today has more than 22000 stores around the globe.
Taste also holds the licence agreement to develop US brand Domino’s Pizza in South Africa.
“We are proud to be bringing Starbucks to South Africa next year. The coffee market here is vibrant and growing fast – we want to be part of that growth‚” said Kris Engskov‚ president of Starbucks Europe‚ the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The partnership will see direct job creation opportunities as each Starbucks store opens‚ in addition to opportunities at the Taste support office in Johannesburg.
Taste expects that the indirect impact of skills transfer into South Africa‚ and the localisation opportunities in the supply chain will be material.
In addition‚ Starbucks and Taste have committed to continuing Taste’s Changing Lanes programme‚ employing predominantly from currently unemployed youth directly from the communities in which they trade.
“Starbucks sources a considerable amount of its global‚ high-quality coffee from farms in sub-Saharan Africa‚ in partnership with our network of farmer support and agronomy centres in Ethiopia‚ Rwanda and Tanzania. We are proud to be able to offer some of the best African coffees in the world to more customers in the region‚” Gonzaga said.
As with Domino’s Pizza and other greenfields operations‚ Taste has and will incur once-off costs relating to establishing the Starbucks business in South Africa.
These costs will include training and travel costs prior to the first store opening‚ pre-opening marketing and market research expenses as well as IT and other infrastructure.
“Starbucks is one of the few truly global brands that is not represented in Southern Africa and this addition to the Taste portfolio complements its licensed portfolio‚” Taste Holdings said. — BDLive
Starbucks to open across SA
Shares in Taste Holdings surged 20% to a record high of R5 in early trade‚ valuing the company at R1.48-billion.
“We are very excited to be Starbucks’ partner in Southern Africa. As we’ve visited numerous Starbucks markets and partners around the world we’ve come to realise that we share similar core values‚ including a commitment to localisation and uplifting both direct and indirect partners‚” Taste chief executive Carlo Gonzaga said.
The licence agreement sees Taste owning the exclusive rights to develop Starbucks retail outlets in South Africa. As Taste is the licensee‚ it will own and operate the stores directly.
Founded in 1971‚ Starbucks Coffee today has more than 22000 stores around the globe.
Taste also holds the licence agreement to develop US brand Domino’s Pizza in South Africa.
“We are proud to be bringing Starbucks to South Africa next year. The coffee market here is vibrant and growing fast – we want to be part of that growth‚” said Kris Engskov‚ president of Starbucks Europe‚ the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
The partnership will see direct job creation opportunities as each Starbucks store opens‚ in addition to opportunities at the Taste support office in Johannesburg.
Taste expects that the indirect impact of skills transfer into South Africa‚ and the localisation opportunities in the supply chain will be material.
In addition‚ Starbucks and Taste have committed to continuing Taste’s Changing Lanes programme‚ employing predominantly from currently unemployed youth directly from the communities in which they trade.
“Starbucks sources a considerable amount of its global‚ high-quality coffee from farms in sub-Saharan Africa‚ in partnership with our network of farmer support and agronomy centres in Ethiopia‚ Rwanda and Tanzania. We are proud to be able to offer some of the best African coffees in the world to more customers in the region‚” Gonzaga said.
As with Domino’s Pizza and other greenfields operations‚ Taste has and will incur once-off costs relating to establishing the Starbucks business in South Africa.
These costs will include training and travel costs prior to the first store opening‚ pre-opening marketing and market research expenses as well as IT and other infrastructure.
“Starbucks is one of the few truly global brands that is not represented in Southern Africa and this addition to the Taste portfolio complements its licensed portfolio‚” Taste Holdings said. — BDLive
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