Tea stirs the BY DAN BOLTON
retail pot
Tea is driving to increase market share in the retail specialty beverage segment—and coffee ventures are helping lead the charge.
W
ell fi nanced and newly energized competition is heating beverage retail to a boil.
Remember when there were only three Starbucks in town?
It was not that long ago. In January 2000 there were only 1,996 Starbucks in the entire country. Eight years later, aſt er averaging two new store openings
a day during the peak of its domestic expansion, the mighty mermaid had constructed 11,567 stores—its all-time high.
20 | January 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com
Consumers fell in love with lattes in the 1980s, but it took another 20 years for investors to supercharge the category. Tea is now poised for a similar growth spurt. For some examples where tea is aggressively stepping into
the retail mix, consider: • Starbucks named dynamic global marketing director Annie Young-Scrivner as president of $1.3 billion Tazo Tea in July, and soon aſt er, hired respected tea retailer
