LONDON – In 2012, Starbucks Coffee Canada Inc ranked first in the Canadian café & bars market with a 16% value share to total C$781 million in sales. Starbucks also ranked first in terms of the number of outlets with a total of 1,181 establishments.
According to Euromonitor’s latest report, the company saw a strong lead in specialist coffee shops, where it accounted for a value share of 42%, and 39% of transactions.
In 2012 the company launched a new speciality coffee product, Blonde, representing a lighter roast of coffee, which it claims is preferred by 40% of Canadians, who find Starbuck’s signature coffee beverages too strong.
By launching this product for sale as coffee beans and a speciality drink in Starbucks’ coffee shops, as well as coffee products in supermarkets, the company hopes to extend its consumer base to coffee drinkers not previously targeted.
In 2012 the café & bars market grew by 4% in current value terms to reach C$4.9 billion. Growth was rather modest due to the fairly mature nature of this category.
The category includes bars/pubs (43% value share), specialist coffee shops (38%), juice/smoothies bars (14%) and cafés (5%).
The number of outlets grew by 2% to reach 8,614 establishments, slightly lower than the CAGR seen over the review period as a whole.
Over the forecast period the cafés/bars environment is projected to see a constant value CAGR of 2% and a 1% CAGR in transactions, while the number of outlets is projected to grow by an annual average of 1%.
In 2017, sales through the café & bar merket are thus expected to amount to approximately C$5.2 billion. Economic recovery as well as legislative changes will continue to play a role in the performance of café/bars in coming years.
However, considering already high per capita consumption of coffee in Canada, a focus on coffee will have to be increasingly shared with other menu developments, including food, light meals, potentially wine and beer and increasingly speciality tea.
Source: Euromonitor
Note: C$01=US$0.9377
