Starbucks Corp. (SBUX)

Starbucks buys and roasts coffee and sells it, along with handcrafted coffee, tea and other beverages and a range of food items, through its own coffeehouses in 89 markets. The company describes itself as the premier roaster, marketer and retailer of specialty coffee in the world. It was formed in 1985 and its common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. It also sells coffee and tea products and licenses its trademarks through other channels, including licensed stores and the grocery and foodservice business run through its Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé. It sells goods and services under the Teavana, Ethos and Starbucks Reserve brands as well as under Starbucks Coffee itself.

Three segments

North America covers the U.S. and Canada and was 74% of what the company took in during fiscal 2025. International covers China, Japan, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and was 21%. Channel Development, at 5%, sells roasted whole bean and ground coffees, single-serve products, ready-to-drink beverages such as Frappuccino and Starbucks Doubleshot, foodservice products and other branded products outside the stores. A large part of it runs under the licensed model of the Global Coffee Alliance, while the ready-to-drink businesses operate under collaborative relationships with PepsiCo, Inc., Nestlé and others. North America is the most mature business, while certain International markets are at earlier stages and may need more support.

The stores

At 28 September 2025 there were 40,990 stores, split 21,514 company-operated and 19,476 licensed. Company-operated stores are 60% of the North America base and 46% of the International base. In fiscal 2025 it opened 1,261 of its own stores and closed 877, including 627 closed in the fourth quarter under the restructuring plan announced as part of the Back to Starbucks strategy. That left 11,018 in North America, 10,047 of them in the U.S., and 10,496 internationally, with 524 in the U.K., 1,883 in Japan and 8,009 in China. Company-operated stores accounted for 83% of the total in fiscal 2025, and beverages were 73% of what those stores sold, food 23% and other items, mainly serveware and packaged coffees and teas, 4%. Stores sit in high-traffic, high-visibility locations, and the company varies size and format to place them in downtown and suburban retail centres, office buildings, university campuses and rural and off-highway settings.

The licensed model

Licensed stores were 12% of the total in fiscal 2025, 7,293 of them in North America and 12,183 internationally, with the largest counts in Korea, Latin America, the U.K. and Turkey. Under this model Starbucks takes a margin on branded products and supplies sold to the operator plus a royalty on retail sales, and the licensee carries the operating costs and the capital investment. The company also sells coffee, tea, food and related products for resale, and equipment such as coffee brewers and espresso machines. Licensee employees must follow the same detailed store operating procedures and attend training similar to that given in company-operated stores, and in a limited number of international markets traditional franchising is used instead.

Cards and rewards

The Starbucks Card is a stored value card meant to give customers a payment method, support gifting and raise visit frequency. Cards can be loaded in company-operated and most licensed stores, online, through the Starbucks Mobile App and through other retailers. In nearly all markets, including the U.S. and Canada, registering a card enrols the customer in Starbucks Rewards, where benefits depend on the number of reward points, which the company calls Stars, and members can also earn Stars paying with cash, cards or selected mobile wallets. The Mobile Order and Pay function lets customers order ahead for pick-up at participating locations in several markets.

Coffee and people

The company generally controls substantially all coffee purchasing, roasting and packaging and the global distribution of the coffee it uses, buying green beans from multiple producing regions and custom roasting them for its blends and single-origin coffees. Nestlé controls distribution of packaged Starbucks coffee outside the stores under the Global Coffee Alliance and in some cases roasts and packages it. The filing states that the price of coffee is volatile and has risen steadily over the past five years, that the high-altitude arabica it buys trades at a premium above the C commodity price, and that supply and price turn on weather, water, natural disasters, crop disease, farm input costs, inventories, politics, tariffs and futures market trading. At 28 September 2025 it employed approximately 381,000 people, approximately 223,000 in the U.S. and approximately 158,000 elsewhere, with approximately 214,000 and approximately 153,000 of those respectively in company-operated stores. Unions represent partners in approximately 6% of the U.S. company-operated stores.

From Starbucks's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 28 September 2025. The filing