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Starbucks Corp. is allegedly thinking of selling its business operations in the United Kingdom. The reason why the coffee company is exploring this move is that newer brands of coffee houses are coming into the market and creating tough competition.
According to Reuters, Starbucks Coffee hired and requested Houlihan Lokey Inc., a business adviser, to canvass any interest for its U.K. operations. It was mentioned by a business insider that the company is facing stiff competition against its rivals such as Tim Hortons, Costa, and Pret A Manger.
Currently, Starbucks U.K. is operating more than 1,000 store outlets, and its workforce consists of about 4,000 employees. The Financial Times reported that out of 1,000 Starbucks stores in the U.K., 70% are franchises, while the remaining are company owned.
In any case, while it is mulling the sale of its business in the country, it was reported that it has not yet initiated any formal process for the sale. As of this time, the company is reviewing and evaluating its strategic options.
Aside from the arrival of many new coffee store brands in the U.K., another thing that pushed Starbucks to consider the sale of its business is the prolonged pandemic. The restrictions related to COVID-19 have changed consumer habits, including the way people dine. As a result, businesses have been severely affected, and they started seeing their sales going down.
The news that Starbucks is considering the sale of its business first emerged during the weekend. While it is not yet really pushing for the sale of its U.K. operations, Starbucks is making plans to recover higher sales while also improving its services. It is making adjustments based on how people buy and dine as they are only starting to go out of their homes now as the cases of COVID-19 have gone down.
The coffee chain is hoping that offices, entertainment locations, parks, and other public establishments will recover and return to normal operations because this will also be beneficial to their business.
“It’s quite a capital-intensive estate and it is pretty urban-focused,” a person familiar with the Starbucks sale exploration said with regards to the issue. “It got hammered quite hard in Covid and it has not come back to the same level.”
