Starbucks to open first store in Dec

Starbucks plans to open its first store in India by December this year.

"Our coffee store in India will be a model for our future expansion in the country," said Colman Cuff, director of trading and operations, Starbucks Coffee Company. Cuff was in Bangalore to attend India International Coffee Festival 2007 on Saturday.

"The opening of a store in India is part of our global plans of opening 2,400 stores this year," he added.

Speaking further on Starbucks sourcing strategy he said that they have been sourcing coffees from India for the last 8 years directly from growers or through the help of importers.

Without mentioning the quantity of coffees sourced from India, Cuff said globally the company sources around 306 million pounds and in that India's share is negligible.

"But we buy substantially to use them in many of our coffee blends sold in the European and Russian markets," he added.

Speaking on the characteristics of the Indian coffee, he said that it has an unique characteristics of sweet and light and is widely accepted in Europe blended with other flavours.

The company has four roasting plants globally of which three are in the US and one in Amsterdam in Europe. "The coffee sourced from India gets into the plant in Europe as a channel to reach the cups there," he noted.

For sourcing coffee from growers, Starbucks has put in place the Coffee And Farmer Equity (CAFE) practice in Latin American countries. All coffee buying/sourcing by the company is under this model which revolves around openness and fair play.

"In 2006, 98 per cent of the coffee contracts entered by the company of which 95 per cent had an economic transparency clause which declares as to what middlemen takes," said Cuff.

In 2007, the company plans to source 225 million pounds under CAFE, as against 155 million pounds sourced in calender year 2005.

"For sourcing 255 million pounds, we hope to expand our CAFE model to East Africa and Asian countries," he added.