Starbucks Corp, its stock surging amid healthy sales at existing locations, set a new long-term goal to have 40,000 coffee stores worldwide, 10,000 more than its previous target and more than triple the current number.
Starbucks also announced at an analyst's meeting on Thursday in its hometown of Seattle a deal to feature the music it sells in its stores on Apple Computer Inc's iTunes online music service.
The coffee retailer did not give a timeline for its long-term growth plans but said it expects to have more than 14,000 stores worldwide by the close of its fiscal year ending in the fall of next year. There are currently about 12,000 Starbucks stores around the world.
Starbucks said half of the eventual 40,000 stores will be outside the US. The company said on Thursday it plans to expand into Brazil, Egypt, Russia and India by the end of next year, giving Starbucks a presence in 40 countries worldwide.
"We've seen the Starbucks experience become universally accepted around the world," Starbucks chief executive Jim Donald told analysts and journalists.
Sales up
Starbucks said late on Wednesday that sales at stores open at least 13 months increased 6 percent for the five weeks ended Oct. 1, compared to the same period ended Oct. 2, last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had predicted same-store sales would increase 3.3 percent.
Starbucks' shares climbed US$2.73 to close at US$38.69, up 7.6 percent, on Thursday on the NASDAQ Stock Market. The stock had jumped 5.7 percent on Wednesday before the sales report. The stock has traded between US$24.86 and US$39.88 over the past year.
In early August, Starbucks shares took a dive after the company announced its lowest monthly same-store sales increase in more than four years.
Starbucks' expansion plans are being fueled in part by a customer base that is broadening to include people with lower incomes and education levels, said Anne Saunders, senior vice president of global brand strategy and communications.
Five years ago, Starbucks estimated the average income for a person visiting one of its US locations for the first time was US$92,000. Now, the company says the average income for first-time customers is US$80,000.
Starbucks also said it is seeing more new customers without a college degree, and is seeing an increase in first-time visitors who are Hispanic.
The average age of first-time customers has increased over the five-year period, from 40 to 42 years old, which Saunders attributed in part to an aging US population.
Saunders said the company believes that one key reason even more people do not go to Starbucks is because it is not convenient -- which is why the company thinks the business can support such massive growth.
Every cup of coffee
Saunders also said Starbucks no longer thinks of its main competition as just high-end coffee retailers. Instead, the company is targeting every cup of coffee consumed in the US. Despite the chain's ubiquitous presence, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said the company believes it only captures about 8 percent of the overall US coffee market.
Schultz said the company now thinks it can also convert people who currently drink less-fancy cups of coffee because it has seen success in unlikely areas, such as rural locations and stores located off highways.
Starbucks has a "much broader universal appeal than we ever imagined," he said.
Starbucks is clearly hoping that appeal extends beyond even those who visit its stores or buy its whole beans. Late on Thursday, the company unveiled a vending machine that will let people purchase coffee drinks such as lattes in the same way that people buy a Coke or Pepsi right now.
Dubbing the approach "the smallest Starbucks store you ever saw," Gerry Lopez, senior vice president of global consumer products, said the vending machines will be located in areas where a full store or kiosk wouldn't work.
The company said the vending machines were developed in joint partnership with PepsiCo Inc. The machines, which are scheduled to debut early next year, will deliver warmed lattes, mochas and other drinks in aluminum cans. The drinks will cost US$2.50 in the US.
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