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The world's biggest coffee chain on Tuesday
replaced Tazo tea in its outlets with products from Teavana, the
U.S. retail tea chain it bought for $620 million in 2012.
Starbucks will continue to sell Tazo products in grocery stores,
big-box retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart, as well as
natural foods market such as Whole Foods <WFM.O>, Starbucks
spokeswoman Alisa Martinez said.
Starbucks bought Tazo for $8.1 million in 1999. Current sales
were not immediately available, but Starbucks said in 2012 that
the business brought in more than $1 billion in annual sales.
Starbucks has increased its focus on tea as the popularity of
that drink increases in the United States. Starbucks is also
rapidly building shops in tea-drinking countries such as China.
At its annual investor conference in December, Starbucks said
that tea as a percentage of Starbucks U.S. retail sales had
grown from less than 8 percent in fiscal 2009 to 10 percent in
recent quarters.
(Additional reporting by Bill Rigby)
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