Caffeinated Growth

Starbucks Corp. (Seattle) said it expects to have 10,000 stores in 60 countries by the end of 2005, and that many of its new outlets in North America will be drive-throughs.

The coffee chain, which has over 5000 retail locations around the world, sees significant growth opportunities in the North American market it already dominates, using drive-through outlets and stores that are cheaper to build than in the past, its chief executive told analysts at the company's biennial briefing Thursday.

“We have fewer than 300 drive-throughs now,” says Orin Smith. “We know they are some of our most attractive concepts, so they will constitute a much larger proportion of our portfolio of stores we will open.”

Starbucks also reiterated its long-term goal of having more than 25,000 stores worldwide.