Who is the Owner of Starbucks?

You might have witnessed the green mermaid logo on a coffee cup at some point in your life, be it an airport, a mall or even in your city. Starbucks is one of the most recognised company names all over the world. However, do you know who owns it and how it all got started? Let us find out.

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Who was the Founder of Starbucks?

Source: Starbucks

In 1971, Starbucks was the result of three friends, co-founder Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, who got their inspiration from Pike Place Market in Seattle. It was originally a coffee bean wholesaling business. 

They have been friends for a long time since their University of San Francisco days. Baldwin was an English teacher, Bowker was a writer and Siegl was teaching history at his school. Each invested some 1350 dollars and then took out about 5,000 dollars from the bank to establish their first store. At that time, the shop only sold coffee beans and no coffee drinks that are common today. 

Starbucks got its name from Starbuck, the chief mate in the classic novel Moby-Dick.

The Starbucks website mentions: “Friends since their University of San Francisco days, Gerald Baldwin, a former English teacher, Gordon Bowker, a writer, and Zev Siegl, a history teacher, were three 20-somethings who were passionate about the arts, fine food, good wine and, of course, great coffee. They started Starbucks because they wanted Seattle to have access to the delicious dark-roasted coffee that they loved—but had to go out of town to find. Investing $1,350 apiece and borrowing $5,000 from a bank, they took a name from classic literature and opened our first store in April 1971.”

How Did Howard Schultz Change Everything?

Source: Starbucks

A sales man named Howard Schultz stopped by and visited the original store in 1981 and he was captivated enough to join. 

During a trip to Milan, Italy, in 1983, Schultz became fascinated with the Italian espresso cafe culture. He envisioned a similar experience here, to have a comfortable "third place" for individuals to go and sit and drink a good cup of coffee away from home and work. 

The original owners were not too enthusiastic about this idea. They didn't want Starbucks to be a coffee company. Thus the company was sold in 1987 and Schultz bought for 3.8 million dollars, integrated the company with his own chain of coffee shops, named Il Giornale, and started expanding the Starbucks brand quickly.

The Starbucks website states: “Ten years later, a young New Yorker named Howard Schultz would walk through these doors and become captivated with Starbucks coffee from his first sip. After joining the company in 1982, a different cobblestone road would lead him to another discovery. It was on a trip to Milan in 1983 that Howard first experienced Italy’s coffeehouses, and he returned to Seattle inspired to bring the warmth and artistry of its coffee culture to Starbucks. By 1987, we swapped our brown aprons for green ones and embarked on our next chapter as a coffeehouse.”

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Who is the Current Owner of Starbucks?

Source: Starbucks

Here is where things become quite interesting. There is no one man who owns Starbucks. Starbucks is a publicly held company which means it has a lot of shareholders and the stock trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol SBUX. 

As of September 2024, Brian Niccol has been serving as both the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Starbucks and previously he served as CEO of Chipotle. He succeeded the previous chairman and CEO Laxman Narasimhan. 

The Starbucks website mentions: “BRIAN NICCOL has served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Starbucks since September 2024. Mr. Niccol joined Starbucks after leading Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (“Chipotle”) through a period of growth and transformation. He served as a director and as Chipotle’s Chief Executive Officer from 2018 until 2024 and assumed the role of Chairman in March 2020. During that time, he more than doubled the business by establishing Chipotle as a culinary leader, pioneering digital innovation, introducing exciting new menu offerings, and expanding internationally.”

Since 2018, Howard Schultz, who had the most to do with the creation of Starbucks, has been serving as the company's first Chairman Emeritus. He has stepped down from day to day operations but his impact on the brand is irreplaceable.

Starbucks evolved from three friends selling coffee beans in Seattle to a company with growing over 40,000 locations throughout the world. It is a story of a simple idea, a lot of passion and one man's dream of transforming coffee into an experience. 

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