Macdonald's sells more coffee than Starbucks!!

by Chee Leng
(Singapore)

Mc Cafe

Mc Cafe beautiful store

Mc Cafe beautiful exterior

Okay, starbucks supporters nothing to worry about, this is only in UK.

According to a research company NPD, MacDonald have sold more coffee, than Costa, Starbucks and even Tesco (this is a feat considering that tesco have hundreds of in store outlets selling coffee!).

McDonald sold 84 million cups for the last 12 months making it the biggest coffee seller in UK. Costa is second, Tesco is third, Caffee Nero is third and Starbucks is a fifth.

Come to think of it, you would expect Starbucks to sell more coffee than that right? After all, it has been in UK for more than a decade...maybe that is the reason why it is going into other segments.

Now, MacDonald is really something, it just started selling freshly ground coffee in 2007 and in less than 3 years, it not only challenges the incumbent coffee sellers, but over-taking them.

If you look at it from a marketing perspective, this is what the two Ps can assist in your marketing plan -pricing and places.

MacDonald has a huge distribution, so when it harness on its network, its exposure is amazing. Then, I believe MacDonald got the right price.

Sure, it might just be a few cents lesser than Starbucks, but if the taste is right and you get to save some money -why not?

I do not have the data for other places, but based on observation of local MacDonald outlets, the take up for its coffee is pretty strong too.

No wonder they say the market place is every dynamic and change is the only thing that is constant. Who would have thought that MacDonald would be selling coffee and selling it so well.

Then again, you wouldn't have thought that a high street cafe chain Starbucks would be selling Instant Coffee Via right?

A lot of analysts feedback that MacDonald is on the decline, being in the situation of not having a smash hit product for more than a decade (think its last hit product was probably in the eighties or early nineties), but with the success of its coffee -it has proven many critics wrong...

Comments for Macdonald's sells more coffee than Starbucks!!

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Rating

Hmm...my two cents
by: chee leng

Hi Keith,

Guess you are right to say that McD and Starbucks coffee is not as good as many cafe that is focus on their blend and roast.

That in fact is the notion shared by many coffee drinkers.

Personally, I think McD is selling more coffee simply because of its size (it has a huge distribution network).

And Starbucks is popular (personally I believe) is not so much about their coffee, but the Starbucks experience.

I have personally observed at an outlet (was doing research for another customer), that an average Starbucks customer buy a coffee, spend 2 hours in the couch and then leave without finish drinking their coffee.

Thus, one cannot help but conclude that it is perhaps the couch and not the coffee that attract so much business.

Rating

Too many cheap coffees competing for mediocracy!
by: Keith

If you read between the lines, this article tells me a couple of things. First of all, if the consumer is buying coffee out of convience and price, then Mickey D's is the place to go. Beyond that, I would like to believe that there are many ignorant coffee drinkers out there. Who's not educating them to Specialty Coffee? Mickey D's is not Specialty Coffee...it's swill water, in other words, "bad coffee is better than no coffee". SBucks is only a notch above Mickey D's with their "every day" blends of mostly cheap Brazils. They just roast darker to "smooth out" the edges. This poses a final question, who is the best educator? Mickey D's wins the title of "snowballing" the consumer to believing their coffee is comparable to Specialty Coffee standards but at a better price.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Coffee and coffee makers news.