Starbucks 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

makes the Clover® brewer, a state-of-the-art single-cup brewing system that allows us to serve the best cup of
brewed coffee available anywhere. Our customers also told us they are looking to Starbucks for more in the health
and wellness space, and in response, we launched our nutritious Vivanno™ Nourishing Blends and extended our
breakfast platform with choices like Perfect Oatmeal, one of our most successful food introductions ever.
Not surprisingly, our customers have asked us to reward their loyalty and provide value, and we did just that through
our Starbucks Rewards program. Value continues to be key to meeting the needs of our customers, and we have our
sights set on more ways to provide it—all while not diminishing our brand, which stands for quality above all else.
Our customers have consistently expressed that they want to be part of something bigger. And to that end, we
worked diligently to tell the world exactly what kind of company Starbucks is, and has always been. We launched
Starbucks™ Shared Planet,
™ our platform for delivering on commitments to the ethical sourcing of coffee,
the environment and the communities we serve. We established signifi cant partnerships with Fair Trade and
(PRODUCT) RED™–both names that infl uence consumer purchasing behavior in a signifi cant way. We did all of
this not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s good business.
Our stores, the iconic third place for meeting friends and family, enjoying a quiet moment alone with a book
or simply fi nding a familiar place in a strange city, were also a focus this year, but in a different way. We have
taken a more disciplined approach to managing our existing portfolio, and we committed to closing approximately
600 underperforming company-operated stores in the U.S. and 61 stores in Australia. We entered into fi scal 2009
with a more rigorous and disciplined approach to managing our store portfolio.
During last year’s annual meeting of shareholders, I outlined our Transformation Agenda, a blueprint for Starbucks to
return to its roots: a focus on partners, coffee, customers and the Starbucks Experience. We were beginning to feel
the effects of what we now know to be a recession, and we were building a strategy to withstand a diffi cult economy.
Today I can say, with pride in the management team and in our more than 160,000 partners, that we aggressively
delivered on that agenda. And while we did not know how severe the economic downturn would become, we
immediately took a hard look at our business and what it would take to weather that storm. We made some very
diffi cult decisions during the process, and undoubtedly we will need to make more. I’m confi dent, however, that
these actions, combined with our sharp focus on transformation, will help ensure that we emerge from the current
economic environment positioned to deliver on our commitment to shareholders for sustainable, long-term growth.
I remain passionately enthusiastic about our company’s future. You have my personal commitment that we will make
you proud of how our continued dedication to the heritage and the tradition of Starbucks delivers value to everyone
we touch—that we are a company you can trust and believe in—even in these diffi cult times.
On behalf of the Starbucks leadership team, I would like to thank our shareholders, our customers, our business
partners, the farmers and suppliers who grow our coffee, and especially our partners for their support and belief
in our future.
Warm regards,
Howard Schultz
chairman, president and chief executive offi cer