Starting spring 2014
The products will be for sale at Starbucks from the spring of 2014 and a year later the products will also be sold in American supermarkets. Currently it is a US-only cooperation, but both companies can see a future for the products across the pond.
The reason to invest in yoghurt in America is easy to explain: according to Starbucks, this part of the market is worth 4.5 billion euro and it still has room to grow. Currently Americans eat thirty percent more yoghurt than Europeans. Danone agrees and sees the American market as an important market for growth.
Both parties benefit
Starbucks is not expecting any additional costs to come with the deal, as Danone will handle the distribution. Danone says it is expecting growth by tapping into the millions of Starbucks customers.
At the same time, the competition is not waiting its turn, because some other companies are getting ready to flood the yoghurt market. Chobani, the market leader in strained yoghurt, recently launched fourteen new flavours and its founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, expects annual yoghurt sales to double within three to four years.
