Poor Farmer

Starbucks Corporation Chairman and Chief Global Strategist, Howard Schultz, came to visit Ethiopia a few months after his company signed a deal with Ethiopia recognising the trademark right the latter has over three of its coffee varieties. He met with Ethiopian authorities, including Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and gave a lecture on balancing "business with benevolence" on Friday, November 30, 2007, at the Sheraton Addis. In all these, neither Mr. Schulz nor Ethiopian authorities have revealed the content of the agreement they have signed, observes Shlomo Bachrach. Employed by Ethiopia's trademarks advisor, LightYears IP, and resigning before the Starbucks negotiations began, Mr. Bachrach has a lot more questions than answers. - Addis Fortune By Shlomo Bachrach Addis Fortune December 2, 2007 Starbucks deserves full recognition for its announcement of a proposed Farmer Support Centre to be established in Addis Abeba. When completed, it will represent tangible compensatio...

Starbucks Press Release CSRwire December 1, 2007 KIGALI, RWANDA and SEATTLE - Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) chairman Howard Schultz announced today that the company will open a regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center in Rwanda. The facility will provide an opportunity for Starbucks to collaborate with farmers in Rwanda and in the East Africa region, and demonstrates the company's continued support for their efforts to expand the availability of their high quality, specialty coffee worldwide. "We are very excited to have a regional Starbucks Farmer Support Center here in Rwanda. We look forward to working with Starbucks to offer additional support to the coffee farming community here and in the neighboring countries," said Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda. "This center will offer many new opportunities to enhance our methods and produce even greater volumes of our high quality specialty coffees." The Rwandan center, like the one announced earlier thi...

"We are here to turn the page of the misunderstandings, for a new beginning," said Howard Shultz, chairman of the US coffee shop chain after having signed a coffee distribution and marketing deal with the Ethiopian government. - AFP Photo: Courtesy of AFP Starbucks to Build Ethiopian Farmers' Centre AFP November 28, 2007 US coffee giant Starbucks on Wednesday announced plans to build a support centre for Ethiopian coffee farmers, claiming an end to a long-running dispute with the East African country. "We are here to turn the page of the misunderstandings, for a new beginning," said Howard Shultz, chairman of the US coffee shop chain. He was speaking after having signed a coffee distribution and marketing deal with the Ethiopian government. "This is a real commitment to work side by side with the coffee farmers of Ethiopia," he added. Starbucks plans to build next year a center in Addis Ababa aimed to help farmers to raise the quality and production of...

By Tsegaye Tadesse Reuters November 28, 2007 ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Starbucks said on Wednesday it would open a support centre for coffee farmers in Ethiopia, which earlier this year clashed with the company over a bid to trademark its coffee beans. The world's largest coffee shop chain said it would open the centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital, in 2008. The announcement was made in conjunction with a trip to Ethiopia by Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. "The facility, the first in Africa, will enable Starbucks to work collaboratively with Ethiopian farmers to raise both the quality and production of the country's high-quality specialty coffees," Schultz said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The centre "will provide resources and ongoing support to coffee communities with the goal of improving coffee quality and growing practices," Schultz added. Starbucks said it is also in talks with an Ethiopian apparel factory to ...

Ethiopian News Agency [Government Owned] November 23, 2007 (Addis Ababa) - A delegation led by owner and board chairman of Starbucks, a leading Coffee Company of the U.S, would visit Ethiopia as of the coming Wednesday, the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) said. Trade mark director with the office, Wendwossen Belete told ENA on Friday that the delegation led by Howard Schultz would stay here for three days. Schultz is expected to hold discussions with high level Ethiopian government officials on various issues. Starbucks is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world that recognized Ethiopia's ownership of its premium coffee brands. Howard Schultz is a businessman and entrepreneur most widely known as the Chairman and Chief Global Strategist of Starbucks. Schultz, who is founder Starbucks, has been chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of the company since its inception in 1987. ------- Ed's Note: To read a summary of the t...

TV Campaign Is Culture Shift For Starbucks By STEPHANIE KANG, JANET ADAMY and SUZANNE VRANICA The Wall Street Journal November 17, 2007 With more than 10,000 U.S. stores, and products in shops around the globe, Starbucks Corp. has built one of the world's best-known brands. Now, for the first time, it's rolling that brand out on national TV. The decision is a cultural turnabout for the coffee giant, which built itself into a global chain by harnessing word-of-mouth buzz. Starbucks's chairman, Howard Schultz, wrote a decade ago: "[B]y its very nature, national advertising fuels fears about ubiquity." Today, competitors McDonald's Corp. and Dunkin' Donuts, which never had any qualms about hawking their wares on the tube, are stepping up their coffee marketing. And Starbucks, after years of phenomenal success, is struggling to lure customers as the economy softens. The first batch of ads, which aired last night, is timed for the holidays and uses "anim...

By JANET ADAMY The Wall Street Journal November 16, 2007 Average customer traffic at Starbucks Corp.'s U.S. stores fell during the company's fourth quarter for the first time, a sign that the Seattle coffee giant is having difficulty attracting customers as it moves into the holiday season. The company reduced its earnings and same-store-sales-growth estimates for the coming year. Starbucks planned to launch its first national television-advertising campaign today. In an interview, Chief Executive Jim Donald called the campaign "a very culturally sensitive, product-driven" effort. He said Starbucks is getting into TV advertising because "as we grow our stores, we're trying to reach out to this broader audience that maybe [has] not had a chance to experience Starbucks." Chief Operating Officer Martin Coles said the ads highlight factors that differentiate Starbucks from rivals. The spots are part of Starbucks's holiday/winter campaign and feature ani...