SEATTLE — A record volume of customers visiting its stores has put some pressure on the supply chain at Starbucks, but reports the Seattle-based company is running short on key supplies is not necessarily true, said Kevin Johnson, chief executive officer.
“No shortage of cups, no shortage of coffee,” Mr. Johnson told Jim Cramer during a June 24 appearance on CNBC’s “Mad Money.”
Mr. Johnson did acknowledge, though, that Starbucks is experiencing some challenges in its food offerings.
“Our supply chain in our breakfast sandwiches and some items in the bakery case, they have had to ramp up staffing, and so we’ve had some shortages in the bakery case, that’s certainly true,” he said. “If you look at what we’ve done over the last couple of months to really get us in a much better position. And you just think about it. When you turn this on so rapidly, it really tests the elasticity of the supply chain, and if there is one area that we’ve been focused on it’s our supply partners who assemble breakfast sandwiches, some of the food items in our bakery case.”
Earlier in the interview, Mr. Johnson said Starbucks is going through “trade area transformation,” a process that includes the repositioning of approximately 600 stores in the United States.
“We’re well into that (transformation),” he said. “In many cases, that means, where we’ve got a store that maybe could be relocated to better serve the community of customers, we’ve made those moves. That is creating more opportunity for us to serve customers, it’s enabling us to elevate the customer experience. But that said, the volume of customers coming into our stores is a record. So, we are doing everything we can to ensure we’re serving those customers in timely fashion, certainly drive-thru, mobile order, but now with our cafes open customers are in the stores, and they’re loving it.”