Starbucks closes its doors in Brazil. Eataly is also at risk?

Difficult time for Starbucks, and not only, in two important markets like the Usa and Brazil. Last Friday the well-known American chain of coffee shops, which arrived in Italy only in 2018, had to face the first major strike called by Starbucks Workers United union, established in 2021 and which involved over 200 shops across the country due to this agitation.

The previous week, although Starbucks had just announced a fourth quarter tax from record with global revenues approaching 10 billion dollars, thanks above all to the United States and China, where 60% of its total 36.000 stores are located, the grana in the first market of South America, where the Seattle company has 187 stores.

Starbucks out of Brazil

Following the request of controlled administration filed on October 31st by SouthRock Capital fund, which manages Starbucks operations in Brazil and complained a debt of virtually 2 billion reais (400 million euros), around forty stores have already closed their doors, leaving 885 employees out of work, who will now have to await the outcome of the bankruptcy proceedings to receive the total 10,44 million reais that Starbucks owes them.

The request for controlled administration is still being analyzed by the Court of Sao Paulo and it is not yet clear whether the chain, which in Brazil declares a monthly turnover of 50 million reais, will be able to restart or will have to close forever as it has already done in the past in other relevant markets such as Australia or, for different reasons, Russia. Or again Italy, if we consider that in our country there are only a handful of sales points left, after the great marketing operation of the Reserve Roastery in the center of Milan (which had led to the sponsorship of the famous and discussed palm trees in Piazza Duomo).

Eataly at risk

Still speaking of Italy, an interesting side of the story is that SouthRock in Brazil it has a small iagri-food empire, which includes not only Starbucks but also the fast food chain Subway, Brazil Airport Restaurantes, Brazil Highway Restaurantes and above all the Italian Eataly, which in 2015 opened an impressive 4.500 square meter store in Sao Paulo, the first from Oscar Farinetti's creation in Latin America. So it would be at risk, in Brazil, also one of the most famous Made in Italy brands abroad?

No response was received from the press office, requested by FIRSTonline, even though it was reported a few days ago that the same SouthRock asked to exclude Eataly from the request for controlled administration. This because Eataly Participaçoes has been in business for less than two years.

SouthRock Capital and Eataly together from December 2022

The move to SouthRock Capital is indeed dated less than a year: it was December 2022 when, with a joint press release, Eataly and the specialized food&beverage fund announced the operation, recalling that the San Paolo store receives 20 thousand customers a week and that the Italian group has a turnover of over half a billion globally .

“We chose SouthRock – he declared at the time Oscar Farinetti – for his solid experience in food service development and we believe he will help us in our expansion in Brazil. This agreement represents another stage in our international growth strategy." A growth which, however, at least in Brazil, seems at risk, after the explosion of the Starbucks case.