• The Guardian, Thursday, January 21, 2010 10:45 AM

Howard Schultz was in London yesterday, reporting Starbucks surprisingly perky quarterly results from outside the U.S. for the first time. David Teather suggests that the founder/ chairman/ president/ CEO was perhaps trying to patch things up across the pond after remarking last year that the UK economy was in a spiral. Teather also took the occasion to observe Schultz as he sat with a dozen young people who had overcome problems such as drug dependencies and abusive parents.

Schultz told them of his own rise from poverty in Brooklyn with a homespun story that Teather says verged on the hokey but, in the end, captivated the listeners who were all part of a social program that Starbucks sponsors. He told them that he had once been in a similar place: "I was fearful, I was insecure, I was somewhat angry, you know: 'Why don't I have the same privileges as everybody else?'"

Schultz also announced yesterday that Starbucks saw a 4% gain in same-store sales and profits of $353 million for its first quarter, a 200% boost. And he admitted to other gaffes in the past, such as his company's rapacious quest to grow in the face of a shifting economy. "The big issue I think was that growth is not a strategy, it is a tactic, and if growth becomes a strategy I don't think it is an enduring one. I think growth covers up mistakes."

Read the whole story at The Guardian »