Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's vision for the chain was largely inspired by the coffee bars he saw on his initial trip to Milan much more than three decades ago. But it took the business expanding to about 26,000 shops in 75 countries in win the credibility he felt vital to make the leap into the nation that gave the planet espresso.
"I didn't assume we had been ready to come to Italy," Schultz told The Connected Press in an interview Monday. "I assume Italy is such a specific location. I am so respectful of the Italian coffee heritage and the Italian culture, and I believe we had to earn that respect, chance, and I feel over the years we got to the point that we are now ready to come."
As he prepares to step down as CEO in April, Schultz will focus on innovation. That includes a Milan place that will open in 2018 of what he called "the quintessential Roastery" — a single of the high-end shops featuring in-residence roasting and complicated coffee drinks. The journey of 35 years, he stated, completes "my personal dream and the circle of Starbucks."
Unsurprisingly, skeptics like 70-year-old Christine Kung see Starbucks as a coals-to-Newcastle enterprise.
"We are delighted the way we are," Kung said on her way to a bar for coffee in central Milan. "We never have to have to be invaded by American scenery. We already have McDonald's and that's enough."
Certainly, the entry of McDonald's into Italy 3 decades ago sparked the Slow Meals movement that encourages neighborhood meals traditions, while it ultimately did not stop the Golden Arches and other quickly-food chains that followed from becoming element of the Italian landscape.
Nevertheless, espresso drinks are component of Italian tradition and the fabric of daily life in a way a quick bite nevertheless is not. Italians are accustomed to "taking" an espresso standing at the bar for an typical price tag of 1 euro, or just about a dollar, even in significant cities 1.20-1.50 euros is on par for a cappuccino.
In Italy, baristas usually make the coffee in complete sight of the consumer, and hand brioche and other pastries across a glass case, often with a quip. Taking a seat in an Italian bar may perhaps incur an additional charge, in particular in prime areas. There are handful of sugary embellishments and Wi-Fi access is spotty, at finest.
It is not uncommon to see waiters with silver trays delivering coffee in porcelain cups covered with foil to neighboring small business, a practice that underlies the rarity of the takeout coffee cup.
This sort of humanity attracted Schultz's admiration on his initially Milan stop by. His response is to position the initially Starbucks in Italy as a premium operation.
The Milan shop at Piazza Cordusio will be among the early wave of up to 30 Roastery locations Starbucks says it expects to open about the planet. The Milan store will launch a new partnership with an Italian partner, the Princi baker, providing deli meals and baked goods. The first Roastery is in Seattle, with other people announced for Shanghai, New York and Tokyo.
Besides mainstay espresso drinks, Schultz hopes customers will be attracted by specialized brewing strategies developed by Starbucks that are not typical in Italy. As in other markets, consumers can take coffee out, or drink out of porcelain cups if they are staying in. Starbucks says it hasn't but determined its prices.
Located in an old post office developing just measures from Milan's cathedral, the shop will be the biggest to date at 25,500 square feet, or about 2,400 square meters — compared with 200 square feet for the average Starbucks location.
It is really hard to gauge how many in Italy could share Kung's wariness. Schultz says marketplace investigation indicates sturdy brand awareness among Italians, mostly from travels abroad. And younger Italians may be much more disposed toward embracing Starbucks as a place to hang out. Twenty-year-old Giulia Rizzi mentioned she is excited for the opening and has no doubt her peers will frequent Starbucks in Italy.
"When I go abroad it really is a place I go to really normally simply because I like it each for the place and for what they do, which can not generally be identified in Italy," she mentioned. "Of course in Italy coffee is sacred so probably not everybody will like it."
But the brand took a short battering on social media, along with city planners in Italy's finance and style capital, soon after an oasis of palm trees appeared opposite the cathedral and it emerged that Starbucks was paying for the landscaping project, selected by the city. Vandals burned a couple of the trees.
The fate of the Italian enterprise, Schultz stated, will depend on winning over Italian clients, not just tourists. Schultz has been finding guidance on how to approach the Italian market from style designer and CEO Brunello Cucinelli. His tips: "For Starbucks to be genuine. For us to be ourselves," Schultz said.
Just after the Roastery, Starbucks plans to open other locations in Milan, a mixture of traditional retailers and Reserve retailers, which are basically smaller sized Roasteries, before it appears at other Italian cities. Schultz didn't say how lots of shops are planned for Milan, but noted in the past ten to 12 have opened within the very first year of getting into a marketplace.
So far, Starbucks' plans aren't worrying the people at 1 standard Milanese coffee bar, the Giacomo Caffe with its wooden bar, round tables and straight-back chairs positioned in the Palazzo Reale beside Piazza Duomo, not far from the new Starbucks location.
"It is anything entirely unique," stated manager Antimo Santoro. "Their strongest point is to take away, to get and take away. Our powerful point is service, we serve a coffee of extremely high high-quality, with a incredibly refined blend, a terrific service."
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Charlene Pele in Milan contributed to this report.
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