• Reuters, Wednesday, February 18, 2009 11 AM

The news leaked last week, but that didn't stop 125 journalists, business analysts and representatives from stores that might carry Starbucks' new instant coffee brand, Via, from attending CEO Howard Schultz' press conference in New York yesterday, C.J. Hughes reports.

Schultz' remarks focused mostly on instant coffee's market potential. Both Costco and Target will carry Via in the spring, he says, and all of Starbucks' 26,000 stores worldwide will sell it by the fall. Three-packet boxes of Via will cost $2.95, or about $1 for an eight-ounce cup. "Everything about this coffee stands up to the test of time," Schultz says. "This is not your mother's instant coffee."

In the U.S., Starbucks currently accounts for about 15% of the $3.5 billion at-home coffee market, or $525 million, according to a Starbucks spokesman. Worldwide, though, instant coffee is a $17 billion industry that is growing at a 7.5% clip.

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