Cost Drivers For Starbucks

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As with any company, price fluctuations where costs are concerned represent a critical risk factor for their operations. A company must find a way to hedge these risks to develop a healthy business. For Starbucks, their primary cost factor is the price of coffee beans, but they are also exposed to commodity risks associated with dairy and sugar products (Krikorian, 2014). As you can see in the graph below, the company’s cost of goods sold has steadily increased from 2006 – 2015. For any company, the costs of goods sold are all of the expenses incurred to manufacture and deliver a product to the customer. These include items such as raw materials, labor, packaging, and equipment. One of the main cost drivers for Starbucks is its price per pound …show more content…

According to Gurufocus.com, the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended June 2016 at $8,239 million, directly impacting their gross margin which ended in June 2016 at 60.67% and inventory turnover which ended at 1.57 (Starbucks Corp n.d.). Other costs such as dairy and sugar products impact the overall cost of production for the company. If the price of milk increases due to a higher demand for the product, then it will cost more and the increased cost will be reflected in increased prices of Starbucks beverages. As with any company the allocation of resources, labor and the overall business practices will influence the cost of production and determine if they will prevent the company from making a profit. For Starbucks, they have high production costs, but these are offset by the high profits that they rake in. In the graph below, it is clear to see that there is an increase each year in cost of goods sold. This increase is offset by increases in revenue because the more you sell, the more cost you will have to produce the additional product. With the cost of coffee beans ever fluctuating, Starbucks has stockpiled their bean supply to alleviate additional price increases to their …show more content…

In order to narrow the market structure, I decided to focus on the coffeehouse market structure of the company. Starbuck’s largest competitors in the coffeehouse market are Cairbou Coffee, The Coffee Bean, and Peet’s Coffee and Tea. All of these firms offer an enticing atmosphere and high quality beverages. A monopolistic competition is a market structure where firms have many competitors, low entry and exit costs, and offer different types of products to their customers. In detailing this, I believe that Starbucks falls under a monopolistic competition market structure. According to Prezi.com, Starbucks is also able to take advantage of economies of sale by purchasing dairy and paper products in bulk due to the enormity of the size of their operations (Kim, A 2014). This allows them to have an advantage of lower input costs and price their products on the elasticity of consumers. The company continues to pride themselves on the fact that their customers are not just purchasing a cup of coffee, but also the ambiance that comes with

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