Highlights from Schultz's Speech at Starbucks (SBUX) Annual Meeting

Presenting at its annual meeting in Seattle today, Starbucks' (Nasdaq: SBUX) Chairman, CEO and President, Howard Schultz, unveiled the Company's transformational initiatives that will attempt to improve its operational performance. Shares of Starbucks have fallen more than 30% in the last four months, amid a drastically tightening consumer spending environment and concerns of a U.S. recession.

Although the economy appears to have certainly dampened Starbucks' performance, Schultz said that he doesn't want to blame the economy for the Company's problem, but mentioned that he believes the economy is in a "tailspin". Despite a rapid decline in stock price, the Starbucks CEO told investors at the annual meeting that the Company is healthy.

Continuing, Schultz said that Starbucks shareholders will see more innovation from the Company over the next 12-18 months: he said he would like to lead the Company into the "Health and Wellness" business and would also like to take a look into the "Energy" category. Furthermore, Schultz unveiled a new espresso machine called the Mastrena, which will freshly ground coffee. Starbucks expects to have the new Mastrena in about 30% and 75% of its stores by the end of 2008 and 2010, respectively.

Also along its path to create powerful strategic initiatives that will improve Starbucks' performance, Schultz told the audience at the annual meeting that the Company will add a rewards program to its popular Starbucks Card system. Such rewards could be free refills and daily free Wi-Fi access, to name a few.

Schultz said that Starbucks' management expects to see similar same-store sales throughout the rest of 2008. [BCS]

You May Also Be Interested In

• Starbucks investors push to split chair and CEO roles held by Niccol
• Pinterest CFO resigns, interim replacement named
• IP Strategy Holdings receives Nasdaq noncompliance notice over late 10-Q