Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz On The Company's Future

Starbucks SBUX founder, president, chairman and CEO Howard Schultz talked about the coffee company's future with CNBC's Jim Cramer Wednesday. Expansion in China “I think China will have 4-5,000 stores when all is said and done. It'll be the second largest market in the world for Starbucks,” sad Schultz. Expansion in the United States “We're going to accelerate our U.S. store growth…because we've had such a strong position in the last couple years. The new stores we've opened have been best-in class,” said Schultz. Internal Structure “Starbucks has always been a consensus-driven management structure. We sit together, we discuss things, and we decide together. And we're all aligned. My change in responsibility is really not that significant in terms of the operational piece. I'm still in the meetings, but these people report to [COO] Troy [Alstead],” said Schultz. Related: ETFs For March Madness Mobile Payments “We have an amazing, stunning opportunity within mobile payments and social digital media…we are going to reinvent and we believe create an opportunity for a new source of revenue and profit that is ultimately complimentary to our core business,” said Schultz. La Boulange “We are seeing almost in every market that La Boulange opens up food, we're seeing incrementally, not only in core food, but incrementally in terms of additional depart, because we have now have food that we did not have that satisfies a different need at a different time of day,” said Schultz. Other Highlights He also mentioned that many of their gift card holders use them on a variety of products, and they are often recharged and reused. Schultz also noted the fragile balance between healthy, natural products and indulgent products. He said that often, healthier and gluten-free products don't sell well. He believes that their future core business will still be retail five years from now.  Jason Cunningham had no position with the mentioned entities while writing this article. Visit Jason on Twitter at @JasonCunningham.