Convenience retailer 7-Eleven to buy Starbucks’ 24 Australian stores in multi-million-dollar deal

JOHN DAGGE
MAY 27, 2014
HERALD SUN
The local Starbucks stores will continue to trade under the Starbucks brand. Source: Supplied
STARBUCKS is selling its Australian stores to the local arm of convenience retailer 7-Eleven in a multi-million-dollar deal.
The Melbourne-based Withers Group, which operates 600 7-Eleven outlets around Australia, has entered an agreement to buy Starbucks’ 24 local stores from the US coffee giant.
A dollar amount for the stores, located in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, has not been made public.
The stores will continue to trade under the Starbucks brand with the Withers Group saying it plans to expand the chain, which has generally struggled to win over Australian coffee drinkers.
In 2008 Starbucks closed 61 of its then 84 Australian stores.
Starbucks’ Australian outlets will be shifted to a new corporate entity, Starbucks Coffee Australia.
Starbucks employs about 500 workers in Australia.
The Withers Group is a privately owned group of family companies headed by Melbourne rich-lister Russell Withers, who is worth an estimated $725 million.
The family brought the 7-Eleven brand to Australia in the 1970s and traces its retail heritage to 1912, when Mr Withers’ grandfather opened a grocery store in South Yarra.
“We are proud to have been able to bring the 7-Eleven concept to Australia and adapt it to the needs of our local market,” Mr Withers said.
“We are looking forward to the challenge of reinvigorating Starbucks in Australia by doing the same.
“For us, the name of the game is the fame of the name, and we are excited about the ongoing success of 7-Eleven Australia and the opportunities ahead for Starbucks Coffee in Australia.”