Coffee or tea? Brought to you by Starbucks.

Starbucks is an ever-changing business. They are careful with where they open stores, including their entry into Colombia, the fourth-biggest producer of coffee beans, and also a big source of Starbucks’ coffee beans. Interestingly, Colombians are not a big fan of coffee there. However, a local coffee chain, Juan Valdez, has opened up the market and Starbucks has announced their entry into Colombia, planning to open 50 stores in the next five years. They will create shared value by using locally grown beans which benefits the domestic farmers, but coffee is not a need or high in demand in Colombia. It is a difficult obstacle that Starbucks will have to overcome in order to make profits, but will help the situation in Colombia greatly if they succeed.

At the same time, Starbucks is targeting a new market: tea. They bought Teavana for $620 million last year and just opened their first tea house in New York. Tea is the second-most popular drink in the world, and Starbucks aims to meet changing tastes by using the multi-brand strategy like with their Tazo teas, and expanding their profits across different markets.

Starbucks’ strategy shows their continuous adaptation and changing tactics to create more profit.