Starbucks teamed up with Budweiser to sell neither coffee nor beer

Starbucks and brewer Budweiser have just announced a joint launch of bottled tea drinks from Starbucks' tea brand Teavana, the first bottled ready-to-drink tea product since Starbucks acquired tea brand Teavana.

According to public reports, the project, which is expected to have an initial investment of $1 billion, will be available for sale next year without alcohol. However, it is not known whether the tea is bottled in the style of Starbucks Frappuccino or canned by Budweiser.

Budweiser plays the role of bottling, distribution and marketing in this partnership.

Before that, Starbucks had already partnered with Pepsi to deliver Frappuccino. According to Starbucks CEOHoward Schultz, the reason for choosing Budweiser this time is that Pepsi has bottled another tea brand, Lipton. Another cooperative factor is that Budweiser's distribution network covers 300000 stores, while bottled Frappuccino has a distribution range of 200000 in the United States.

"this company is of great value and has a strong distribution capacity. At the same time, they also agree that in our area, there is more than coffee in the global market. There are great opportunities in this. " Schultz said at a media conference on Thursday.

From 2014 to 2015, the volume of tea transactions increased by 6.1%, the fastest growth among the beverage category in the United States, according to Beverage Marketing Corp, a beverage industry consultancy and research firm.

Teavana is a US tea retailer founded in 1997. Starbucks bought Teavana for $620 million in 2012. Teavana has become an important part of Starbucks products. As of March 27, Teavana had annual sales of more than $1 billion, up 11% from the same period last year. In January, Starbucks said it planned to grow its Teavana business to $3 billion over the next five years.

Although the retail business of Teavana is doing well, the business of the brick-and-mortar tea bar is not optimistic. Since 2013, Starbucks has opened five tea bars across the United States that specialize in selling tea. Teavana Tea Bar. In January, Starbucks closed four of them, keeping only one in Seattle as a pilot. Starbucks said at the time that it would be able to pool money and resources to bring customers a better tea experience.

Now it seems that Starbucks has "saved" money to make bottled tea. People gradually fall in love with tea, but they have not yet formed the habit of going to tea bars, which have not become the "third space" outside their homes and offices like Starbucks cafes. Therefore, Starbucks may want to continue to promote the retail business of Teavana and cultivate people's tea drinking habits through bottled tea.