Starbucks to sell recycled $1 cup

Starbucks, the Seattle coffee firm, will start selling the plastic cups, bearing its logo and resembling the paper version, at all its company-owned stores in the USA and Canada in a bid to get customers to kick their throwaway habit. It will give a dime discount for each refill so the cup pays for itself after 10 uses.

The $1 tumbler is the latest effort to address criticism that food and beverage retailers need to reduce the amount of disposable cups and containers that ends up in landfills or litters streets and waterways.

However some retailers have cited concerns that reusing cups could cause cross-contamination of germs.

Source: USA Today

Business News

NORTHERN ROCK TO REPAY LOANS

Some 152,000 Northern Rock Asset Management customers will receive hundreds of pounds each in compensation owing to mistakes made in paperwork. Customers who took out personal loans of less than £25,000 will receive an average of £1,775 each.

Bank staff failed to include key details on annual statements about loans, including the original amount which had been borrowed. Refunds of the interest paid by customers will now be made.

DELTA AIRLINES BUY STAKE IN BRANSON’S AIRLINE

Delta Air Lines has agreed a deal to buy Singapore Airlines' 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic for $360m (£224m). Virgin Group and Sir Richard Branson will retain their 51% shareholding, and the Virgin brand will remain in place, the new partners said in a joint statement.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval in the US and Europe. Investors in Delta shrugged off any concerns over that and closed up 5.1% in New York trading.

COSTA SALES UP

As Starbucks are currently engulfed in a tax crisis and a potential customer boycott in the UK, rivals Costa Coffee (owned by Whitbread) have seen a massive rise in sales of 7.7 %. This has pleased Whitbread who over the next 5 years plan an aggressive growth strategy for Costa by opening 330 new stores in several different markets.

Starbucks may yet find that the offer of paying £20 million to HMRC over the next two years may still be seen as too little, too late. It is worth pointing out that Starbucks have done nothing illegal, but it does appear that the all important consumer perception of events deems it immoral. Troubling times ahead in the UK for the Seattle based coffee chain?

Sources: BBC Business News, CNN

Company Profiles - Starbucks

 15 million people in Ethiopa depend on the coffee sector; this generates 60 % of the wealth. So starbucks keep them afloat.






 Starbucks helped differentiate Ethiopan coffee from coffees from other countries. It strengths their confidence of the coffee growing and exporters of the country.





 This means theres an increasing demand for Ethiopian coffee in the worldwide market.





 Increases the income and living stanards of the coffee producers.





 Increased the price of coffee.





 Starbucks have increased the amount theyre paying for the coffee beans by 60% to help them out.





 Through Fairtrade the small-holder families and farmers can get better incomes for their hardwork.





 This allows their children a good opportunity to go to school. And hold onto their land.





 For every coffee they sell a litle profit goes to the Fair Trade. When other major companies would not.

By Laura, Alanah and Rebecca