Seeking Alpha, a website dealing with stock market news & financial analysis, reports that 2013 – without a doubt – is going to be the year of Starbucks. According to them, the financial ratios measuring financial success the previous year were among the highest in the coffee industry and is expected to keep increasing the upcoming year. This increase is based on various reasons: a decline in the price of coffee beans around the world, creating less expenses and greater profits; a new entry of Starbucks into the highly anticipated Vietnamese market; an estimated amount of 250 new branches are planned to be opened in China; and the VERSIMO, Starbuck’s new module of a home-used coffee machine – voted as one of the top investments of the year – will come out as well.
I would like to elaborate on the last reason mentioned for Starbuck’s expected success – the VERSIMO machine. Julian Baggini, a writer for the Aeon Magazine, has recently wrote a fascinating article explaining a change the restaurant industry is currently going through, changing the traditional, hand-crafted coffee served faithfully by the Barista to be produced by state of the art coffee machines. He describes a visit to one of the most famous restaurants in the UK, a gourmet Michelin-starred restaurant serving the coffee to his associates and him only by a press of a button using the Nespresso’s machine. In times when Michelin-starred restaurants feel comfortable serving machine prepared coffee, it’s just a matter of time until the whole industry will follow them through emphasizing the value of entering into the coffee machine market.
On the other hand, as reported on Starbucksgossip blog, the spinning success associated with Starbucks’s has not yet caught up with the VERSIMO. So far revenues are not high as expected to be. “Verismo’s launch borders on being too little too late to enter the single-cup market”, is how SeekingAlpha described the new machine. Lack of holiday promotions demonstrating how the machine operates, limited amount of coffee pods, an additional amount which is needed to be spent on the Starbuck’s special syrups all and an overall pricey purchase contribute to a general feeling among customers to go towards the main competitors: Nespresso and Vertigo.
However, as they continue and explain, the addiction to the Starbucks experience, customer loyalty and its strong brand together with the new App Starbucks launched several months ago, will make up for the recent slow sales of the Versimo. Perhaps with the right marketing tools, which Starbucks is so famous for together with the recent decrease in selling price will bring the Versimo to be an equal competitor in the home-used coffee machines.
The BlogBuster 
interesting.
I actually just bought a Nespresso machine, so Starbucks just lost a costumer ha!
Why did you get the Nespresso machine over its competitors? Or that thought never crossed your mind?
Itai !!!
I’ve already seen the first and second draft of this post and I have to say that the final product is excellent!
I love the introduction and how you say that this is going to be the year of starbucks. Later on you challenged this statement, gave several expert opinions and therefore followed the literature review. The conclusion follows the general expectation that starbucks has enough power to establish the system! Another great thing about your post is that it has, in my opinion, the perfect length!
Great post, excellent work!
Enjoy ‘Starbucks’…-coffee, -latte macciato, -espresso on my couch at home? My dreams come true..- that could be definitely a post just for me! 😉
Due to the fact that I’m addicted to coffee I wanted to thank you, my dear Itai, for your lovely seduction into the world of the black bone.
Your series is absolutely fascinating and a work of very high quality.
First of all I appreciate the structure of your post: the varity of text and picture/media creates a tension and demands the attraction of the reader. Nevertheless I had to ask: where are the subheadings?
Moreover I like the fact that you included trends for the future and introduced the new coffee machine VERSIMO to your readers. The detailed description about the happenings and the informative video enables a general overview.
Furthermore your post offers many interesting links and professional opinions which is the basic of an excellent literature research. Well done!
I guess there could be some small improvement regarding the headline or the insert of data, but all in all I just can raise my ‘cup of coffee’ and say “Cheers for your wonderful post”!!
All the best,
Marie