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CEO Schultz leaves office next year-Starbucks moves towards high-end coffee

Published: 2026-08-25 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/08/25, Maintain the appeal of the high-end crowd the Wall Street Journal analysis believes that Starbucks is moving towards high-end coffee, and the internal project, known as Siren Works, is currently facing increasing competition. For example, Downdole, which has 7000 stores in the United States and has 16.1% market share, is rapidly catching up with Starbucks, not only copying Starbucks' cold iced coffee, but also

Maintain the appeal of the high-end crowd

According to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, Starbucks is moving towards high-end coffee, and the internal project is called "Siren Works". It is currently facing increasing competition. For example, Donndole, which has 7000 stores in the United States and has 16.1% market share, is rapidly catching up with Starbucks, not only copying Starbucks' cold iced coffee, but also launching a "boutique tea" product line to share the tea market. Starbucks hopes to bring new energy to the brand.

"the purpose of Starbucks' high-end approach is to accurately differentiate consumers." For Schultz to shift his focus to the high-end line, Zhu Danpeng, a researcher at the China Brand Research Institute, said that at present, Starbucks stores are all-inclusive, and Starbucks stores are not only ordinary stores, but also Zhenxuan stores and hand-made stores. For Starbucks, it is necessary to maintain the appeal of the high-end crowd, so consumer fission is imperative. This is Schultz's second resignation after his return in 2008. Zhu Danpeng believes that each time Schultz leaves office has a very clear purpose, and the new leader will continue to pursue two directions, one is high-end, the other is global expansion. With the development of urbanization in China, Starbucks will also continue to implement the previously proposed plan to expand stores in China, and open different stores to match different consumers.

In fact, Schultz has led Starbucks on the path of global strategic expansion, saying publicly that Starbucks' growth cycle is still in its infancy and can have at least 20, 000 stores overseas. As of October, Starbucks had opened 25085 coffee shops around the world, according to Starbucks' official statistics. Schultz regards China as an important market, and Schultz continues to deepen his plans to expand stores in China after the appointment of Wang Jingying, CEO of China. Over the next five years, Starbucks will open more than 500 new stores in China each year, and plans to increase the number of Chinese mainland stores to 5000 in 2021.

Schultz's successor, Kevin Johnson, became a member of Starbucks's board in 2009 and became chief operating officer in March 2015, after 33 years in technology before joining Starbucks, according to public sources. After joining Microsoft in 1992, he served as head of Microsoft's Windows and online divisions, where he led Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo and tried to lead the company in 2008 to develop a second-largest search engine that could compete with Google search. After Microsoft failed to acquire Yahoo in 2008, Johnson left Microsoft to join Juniper Networks, the second largest maker of mobile routers in the United States. Kevin Johnson served as CEO of Juniper Networks from 2008 to 2013.

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