Starbucks Plans to Open Juice Bars in U.S. Next Year (SBUX)

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX), the Seattle, Washington-based retailer of specialty coffee, is planning to diversify its business. Starbucks, which operates in more than 50 countries, is now planning to start a chain of juice bars next year. The planned move will be the company’s biggest-ever expansion beyond coffee.

Starbucks has in the past said that it wants to expand beyond its coffee business. The company has taken the first step by acquiring juice company Evolution Fresh for $30 million in cash. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz believes that the acquisition of Evolution Fresh will give the company a significant foothold in the health food market, which is estimated to be worth some $50 billion.

Schultz said that the company plans to build a national Health and Wellness brand leveraging its scale, resources and premium product expertise and bringing Evolution Fresh into the Starbucks family marks a crucial step forward in this pursuit.

Jeff Hansberry, President, Channel Development for Starbucks, noted that the acquisition of Evolution Fresh supports the company’s growth strategy to innovate with new products, enter new categories, and expand into new channels of distribution.

Starbucks plans to open the first juice bars on the U.S. West Coast in early to mid-2012. However, the company has not disclosed how many juice bars it plans to open initially. It has also disclosed the juice bar chain’s name.

The plans to open juice bars in the U.S. lifted Starbucks shares in trading today. The stock rose to an intra-day high of $43.71, and finished the day 1.33% higher at $43.52.

Starbucks shares have outperformed the broad market in the last one month, gaining 6.34%, compared with a gain of 2.29% for the Nasdaq.

Year-to-date Starbucks has once again outperformed the Nasdaq, gaining 35.45%, compared with a decline of 1.04% for the Nasdaq.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.