Following the withdrawal of the Starbucks Coffee chain from Russia in May, its operations have been taken over by replacement brand: Stars Coffee.
Starbucks had 130 outlets in Russia, employing close to 2 000 employees.
Stars Coffee utilises branding with a close resemblance to that of Starbucks. Its livery is green and white, with an image of a women in a circle, and the brand name – in Roman rather than Cyrillic letters – around the borders. The women, however, wears a traditional Russian hat.
Stars Coffee opened its first branch last week, with others to follow gradually.
One of the chain’s owners, Russian rapper and Putin supporter Timati, said that it had adapted to the new environment.
‘We just found other suppliers, found the right roasters, and because the baristas mixed it all correctly, we have a product that we think will be competitive,’ he said.
McDonald’s has seen a similar transition, becoming Vkusno i Tochka, translated as Tasty and that’s it. It’s equipment and the recipes remained the same, and its CEO, Oleg Paroyev, said that ‘Our goal is that our guests do not notice a difference either in quality or ambience.’
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay