Why Starbucks Stops Franchising and giving licence in UK?

jhon andrson
Sep 6, 2018 · 2 min read

Recently i was thinking to invest some money in franchise business so i started searching for good franchise in uk. And i was thinking to go with food and drink industry.

after some research i got 3 names starbucks, macdonalds and subway. At this time i have just name i don;t have any idea about how much it cost and does’t they really give franchise to individual so i decided to dig more about like cost, fee and profit information.
when i searched i got to know that starbucks stop franchise long back(infinity year ago),they only give licences.

that was shocking 😮

I was wondering that why they don’t franchise as it can help them to grow very fast. as like macdonalds and subway has more than 3000 franchise in uk itself.

See here what starbucks CEO has to say about why they don’t franchise


Schultz wrote:

“To me, franchisees are middlemen who would stand between us and our customer… If we had franchised [as some executives wanted to in the 1980s], Starbucks would have lost the common culture that made us strong. We teach baristas not only how to handle the coffee properly but also how to impart to customers out passion for our products. They understand the vision and value system of the company, which is seldom the case when someone else’s employees are serving Starbucks coffee.”


“selective focus photo of woman holding Starbucks tumbler” by quan le on Unsplash

So idea is simple that they focusing on quality and want more control over store. I am not sure that he is right or wrong as subway and other company who provide franchise also doing great in the market.

if We talk about starbucks franchise/licence cost then its bit expensive. it is EUR 315,000 .

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