Starbucks is entering the Indian market through a joint venture with Tata Coffee. A joint venture allows Starbucks to leverage Tata Coffee's expertise and local knowledge of India's coffee market while mitigating risks through shared ownership. Tata Coffee has experience operating coffee plantations and a roasting facility in India, and will help Starbucks source, roast, and distribute coffee within India. The joint venture will also explore social projects to support coffee farming communities and promote responsible agricultural practices.

1. PROBABLE ENTRY MODES FOR STARBUCKS COFFEE IN INDIA
Shahrukh Soheil Rahman
Section- F, V Semester
Jain University-Center for Management Studies
September 2011

2. STARBUCKS COFFEE AT A GLANCE

3. HISTORY OF STARBUCKS
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse
chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest
coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 50
countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in
Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and over 150 in Turkey.
Starbucks sells drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other
hot and cold drinks, coffee beans, salads, hot and cold sandwiches
and Panini, pastries, snacks, and items such as mugs and tumblers.
Through the Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand,
the company also markets books, music, and film. Many of the
company's products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the
store. Starbucks-brand ice cream and coffee are also offered at
grocery stores.
From Starbucks' founding in later forms in Seattle as a local coffee
bean roaster and retailer, the company has expanded rapidly. In the
1990s, Starbucks was opening a new store every workday, a pace
that continued into the 2000s. The first store outside the United
States or Canada opened in the mid-1990s, and overseas stores now
constitute almost one third of Starbucks' stores. The company
planned to open a net of 900 new stores outside of the United States
in 2009, but has announced 900 store closures in the United States
since 2008.
Starbucks has been a target of protests on issues such as fair-trade
policies, labour relations, environmental impact, political views, and
anti-competitive practices.

4. The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 30,
1971 by three partners: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history
teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. The three were
inspired by entrepreneur Alfred Peet (whom they knew personally)
to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment. The name is taken
from Moby-Dick; after Pequod was rejected by one of the co-
founders, the company was named for the first mate on the Pequod,
Starbuck.
From 1971–1975, the first Starbucks was at 2000 Western Avenue; it
then was relocated to 1912 Pike Place, where it remains to this day.
During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee
beans from Peet's, then began buying directly from growers.
Entrepreneur Howard Schultz joined the company in 1982 as
Director of Retail Operations and Marketing, and after a trip to
Milan, advised that the company should sell coffee and espresso
drinks as well as beans. Seattle had become home to a thriving
countercultural coffeehouse scene since the opening of the Last Exit
on Brooklyn in 1967, the owners rejected this idea, believing that
getting into the beverage business would distract the company from
its primary focus. To them, coffee was something to be prepared in
the home, but they did give away free samples of pre-made drinks.
Certain that there was money to be made selling pre-made drinks,
Schultz started the Il Giornale coffee bar chain in April 1986.

5. INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE OF STARBUCKS COFFEE
The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo, Japan,
in 1996. Starbucks entered the U.K. market in 1998 with the $83 million
acquisition of the then 60-outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company, re-
branding all the stores as Starbucks. In September 2002 Starbucks opened its
first store in Latin America, in Mexico City. In August 2003 Starbucks opened
its first store in South America in Lima, Peru. In November 2010, Starbucks
opened the first Central American store in El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.
On March 17, 2011 Starbucks opened its third restaurant in Central America
and its first in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

6. WHAT ARE ENTRY MODES
According to Root, an international market entry mode is to create the
possibility by arranging company’s products, technology, human skills,
management or other resources to enter into a foreign country. He
regards that entry modes help companies to determine goals, resources
and policy in order to channel their international activities toward a
sustainable international expansion.
When a firm is going to explore a foreign market, the choice of the best
mode of entry will arise in the firm’s expansion strategy. There are six
essentially different entry modes, generally named as exporting, turnkey
projects, licensing, franchising, joint venture with a host country firm, and
setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in the host country. All of them
have their advantages for the firm to explore as well as disadvantages
which must be considered by the firm’s top management. In other words,
the managers should make the choice carefully because it directly affects
whether the firm will succeed or not in its foreign expansion. Regarding
the choice of entry for a service company, licensing, franchising, joint-
venture with a host country firm or setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary
are more suitable for these types of firms.

7. LICENSING:
Licensing involves a licensee and licensor tied together by a certain
agreement which stands to benefit both sides. The licensor will sell its
know-how right to the licensee, usually for a period of time. The know-
how refers to intangible properties such as patents, inventions, formulas,
processes, designs, copyrights and trademarks. The licensee needs to pay
the royalty fee in order to have the agreement with the licensor.
FRANCHISING:
Franchising is a similar entry mode to licensing. By the payment of a
royalty fee, the franchisee will obtain the major business know-how via
an agreement with the franchiser. The know-how also includes such
intangible properties as patents, trademarks and so on. The difference
from the licensing mode of entry is that the franchisee must obey certain
rules given by franchiser. Franchising is most commonly used in service
industries, such as McDonald’s to cite an example. However the licensing
entry mode is frequently used by manufacturing firms.

8. JOINT VENTURES:
A joint venture is a typical entry mode used world-wide. Literally, it
means two or more individual and independent firms join together in an
alliance in order to achieve better position in the market. Often the joint
ventures are a 50/50 venture. It is a method that both sides hold
relatively the same percentage of shares in the venture.
The joint venture’s operation is separate from both companies, and often
the same role is shared by both managerial teams. It could be possible
that one firm invests more in order to gain the larger percentage of
shares and hold tighter control of the joint venture’s operations. Likewise,
a lower investment percentage will usually lead to less control.
WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY:
The entry mode of wholly-owned subsidiaries means the firm owns 100%
of the overseas entity. There are two major ways to establish foreign
wholly-owned subsidiaries. First is a Greenfield venture. That means the
firm will enter the new international market by establishing a completely
new operation and legal entity. The second method is acquisition;
whereby the firm acquires another firm in that international market in
order to directly enter. The other firm could be an established and well-
built firm in that particular industry. Thus the firm could gain a lot of
advantages and promote its own products by using the acquisition
strategy.

9. THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THESE ENTRY MODES
From a quick analysis, it can be seen that from all of these above
mentioned entry mode options, Joint Venture seems to be a feasible and
constructive option, as such; Starbucks Coffee should opt for this method
for entering India. In fact, Starbucks Coffee has tied up with Tata Coffee
to enter India on a Joint Venture Model.
Let’s move on with a quick history of Tata Coffee.

10. HISTORY OF TATA COFFEE
Tata Coffee is Asia’s largest coffee plantation company and the 3rd largest
exporter of instant coffee in the country. The Company produces more
than 10,000 MT of shade grown Arabica and Robusta coffees at its 19
estates in South India and its two Instant Coffee manufacturing facilities
have a combined installed capacity of 6000 metric tonnes. It exports
green coffee to countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and North America.
In 2006, Tata Coffee acquired Eight 'O Clock Coffee Co., a segment leader
in the US coffee retail market for US$ 220 million.
Tata Coffee’s other areas of business include tea, pepper, timber and
hospitality in the form of ‘Plantation Trails’ – which recreates the
plantation lifestyle of yesteryears. Tata Coffee’s farms are triple certified:
Utz, Rainforest Alliance and SA8000 reinforcing its commitment to the
people and the environment.

11. STARBUCK’S PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS TO ENTER INDIA
Starbucks, famous for making coffee drinking fashionable in the US, had
tried to enter India by striking an alliance with Kishore Biyani's Future
Group three years ago, but these plans were rejected by the Foreign
Investment Promotion Board, or FIPB, the government body that
regulates inflow of foreign money into India's factories, shops and mines.
Organised coffee retailing is a niche but growing segment in India.
Industry officials said the size of the segment, which is dominated by
unlisted companies, is around Rs 500-600 crore
Until a year ago, Starbucks were reviving its plans for India and began
talks with Shyam and Hari Bhartia-controlled Jubilant Group for a possible
alliance.
Jubilant Foodworks, part of Delhi-based Jubilant Group, is the India
franchisee for Domino's, the pizza chain. The group's flagship is Jubilant
Organosys, a leading contract manufacturer of pharmaceutical products.
However this too also did not work out and finally Starbucks Coffee
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tata Coffee in January
2011.

12. WHAT IS A JOINT VENTURE?
A joint venture has a lot of advantages. Firstly, both of the firms share the
costs as well as the benefits. Both sides share the risk as well. By investing
into and joining a local firm, the international firm could successfully
explore the foreign market with their assisting jointed firm. The
international firm could thereby gain market knowledge from the local
firm. Especially considering the political and economic issues in the
International market today, it is an overwhelmingly popular way to enter
foreign markets. The local firm might have a way to influence the local
government, which will smooth the market entry for its joint partner.
The disadvantage is obvious in that the firm might have major conflicts
with its partner. Regarding the shareholding of the firms, it is often
difficult to maintain a balanced relationship. Once one firm’s expansion
strategy is in conflict with the other party, it will by all means bargain
about the relative share ownership in order to have more control of the
firm. Thus the partner with stronger bargaining power will continue to
lead an unsteady joint venture. As for the firm’s international expansion,
giving up control of technology could be very risky for the firm.
A joint venture is a typical entry mode used world-wide. Literally, it
means two or more individual and independent firms join together in an
alliance in order to achieve better position in the market. Often the joint
ventures are a 50/50 venture. It is a method that both sides hold
relatively the same percentage of shares in the venture

13. WHY JOINT VENTURE?
Joint ventures normally tend to work out fine because of many reasons.
Basically when an international company enters a new country, it has
many apprehensions and tensions as well as a complete uncertain future.
Many companies might enter a new country with a very positive and
optimistic attitude but fail at the end. Besides, each and every country is
different and dynamic demographics, mobile classes of people and ever
changing world trade makes it even more prone to undetermined
changes.
Joint venture is considered to be the safest way, because there will be a
partner from the host country and that very partner will be fully aware of
the market conditions, demographics, expectations etc. As such, all that
the entering company needs to do is give their talents, their technology,
know how, expertise etc. and the host partner will leverage their sound
knowledge of domestic market as well as their own indigenous
technology and together will work out on a very prospective and
collaborative model of business as well as Partnering with a business that
has complementary abilities and resources, such as finance, distribution
channels, or technology.

14. SO, IN A NUTSHELL…
Joint Venture works quite well because,
• Provide companies with the opportunity to gain new capacity and
expertise
• Allow companies to enter related businesses or new geographic
markets or gain new technological knowledge access to greater
resources, including specialised staff and technology sharing of risks
with a venture partner
• Joint ventures can be flexible. For example, a joint venture can have
a limited life span and only cover part of what you do, thus limiting
both your commitment and the business' exposure.
• In the era of divestiture and consolidation, JV’s offer a creative way
for companies to exit from non-core businesses.
• Companies can gradually separate a business from the rest of the
organisation, and eventually, sell it to the other parent company.
Roughly 80% of all joint ventures end in a sale by one partner to the
other.

15. SO WHY WILL STARBUCKS-TATA WORK?
• The MoU will create avenues of collaboration between the two
companies for sourcing and roasting green coffee beans in Tata
Coffee’s Coorg, India facility, a release said. Besides, Tata and
Starbucks will jointly explore the development of Starbucks retail
stores in associated retail outlets and hotels.
• There is a strong reason why existing players and industry experts
are not hung up about Starbucks entry. India is one of the fastest
growing coffee markets in the world with a potential for over 5,000
coffee bars. The coffee retail market in the country is expected to
grow at an annual rate of over 40%. So, there seems to be enough
room for all to brew and grow.
• The agreement recognizes Starbucks and Tata Coffee’s shared
commitment to responsible business values. In accordance with the
MoU, the two companies will collaborate on the promotion of
responsible agronomy practices, including training for local farmers,
technicians and agronomists to improve their coffee-growing and
milling skills. Building on Tata’s demonstrated commitment to
community development, the two companies also will explore social
projects to positively impact communities in coffee growing regions
where Tata operates
• In the areas of sourcing and roasting, Tata Coffee and Starbucks will
explore procuring green coffee from Tata Coffee estates and
roasting in Tata Coffee’s existing roasting facilities. At a later phase,
both Tata Coffee and Starbucks will consider jointly investing in
additional facilities and roasting green coffee for export to other
markets.

16. • Tata Coffee has rich expertise in the bean-to-cup value chain, with
an unyielding focus on quality. It has won global accolades for its
premium coffees. Over the years, Tata Coffee has further
strengthened its Arabica coffee production base by producing
premium specialty coffee. The company has an internationally
certified (ISO: 22000) Roast & Ground unit at Kushalnagar in the
Coorg district of India, and is a dedicated supplier to cafes across the
country and specialty roasters across the globe. Tata Coffee has
rapidly transformed itself by adding to its portfolio through
acquisitions, becoming a more vertically integrated business
• Starbucks Coffee Company is the premier roaster and retailer of
specialty coffee in the world, headquartered in the United States, in
Seattle, Washington. The company manages over 16,000 stores and
operates in more than 50 countries. Starbucks sells a wide variety of
coffee and tea products with a range of complementary food items,
primarily through retail stores. Starbucks has a long association with
India. For the last seven years, the company has been ethically
sourcing coffee beans from India and contributing to several social
programs in the country. Starbucks believes in doing business
responsibly to earn the trust and respect of its customers, partners
and neighbours.
• Tata Coffee, with its large Arabica coffee production base spread
over different growing districts of South India, has supplied
premium coffee beans for Starbucks in the past and is now building
a structure for a long-term relationship.

17. • India is one of the most dynamic markets in the world with a diverse
culture and tremendous potential. This MoU is the first step in
Starbucks’s entry to India. They are focused on exploring local
sourcing and roasting opportunities with the thousands of coffee
farmers within the Tata ecosystem. India can be an important
source for coffee in the domestic market, as well as across the many
regions globally where Starbucks has operations.
• Tata Coffee is trading higher by 4% at Rs 987 on reports that
Starbucks will soon turn its memorandum of understanding (MoU)
with the company into a full-fledged joint venture (JV), in which it
will initially hold a 26% stake.
• The JV will then open outlets in all major metros. Within a year,
Starbucks, the American coffee maker will raise its stake up to 51%.
The government allows up to 51% foreign direct investment (FDI) in
single-brand retail, the newspaper report suggests.
• The stock of Tata Coffee opened at Rs 974 and touched a high of Rs
997 on the NSE. A total of 629,897 shares have changed hands on
the counter in morning deals.
• Given Starbucks's aggressive plans for the Asian region, the
opportunity would only get bigger with time for Tata Coffee.
Starbucks recently announced plans to more than triple the number
of outlets to around 1,500 in five years in China.
• A partner like Starbucks would also help Tata Coffee tap the
domestic market opportunity. Currently, almost 65% of Tata
Coffee's sales come from its Eight O’clock Coffee Co. unit in the U.S.

18. • Indians, traditionally tea drinkers, now prefer ordering espressos
and cappuccino at quick-service cafes as the country's growing
middle class increasingly adapts to Western tastes. As a result,
overall domestic consumption of coffee has risen to an estimated
94,400 metric tons in 2008, up almost 90% since 1998, according to
government figures

19. CONCLUSION
So keeping in view all these aspects, it’s safe to declare that a Joint
Venture will the most feasible and low risk option that Starbucks
can adopt to enter the Indian market. However keeping in view the
dynamic nature of the domestic markets and world economy, this
may not be considered as the final option.

20. REFERENCES
• Business world
• Malardalen University-Sweden, Master Thesis on International
Business.
• Scribd