Consumers continue to turn to coffee as one of their many sources of caffeine. Steady growth could be found in coffee segments such as ground coffee, which posted an increase of 1.2 percent with more than $2.4 billion in sales in food...

Building on its global momentum, Starbucks Coffee Co., Seattle, announced a new corporate structure to accelerate its growth strategy, which the company says will take effect by the end of September.

Demands for premium tastes as well as for competitively priced products helped contribute to growth in the coffee category. The category experienced a 9.1 percent increase in sales for more than $4 billion, according to SymphonyIRI Group, Chicago, for the 52 weeks ending May 15 in U.S. supermarkets, drug stores, gas and convenience stores and mass merchandise outlets, excluding Wal-Mart.

Starbucks Corp., Seattle, announced the November launch of Starbucks Coffee K-Cup Portion Packs for the Keurig Single Cup Brewing system. The branded K-Cups will be available throughout grocery stores and specialty retailers in the United States later this year.

Starbucks Corp., Seattle, is celebrating its commitment to communities by launching a charitable whole bean coffee blend, offering discounted whole bean coffees and bringing back fall favorites. 

Starbucks Coffee Co., Seattle, introduced a new community model in the neighborhoods of Harlem, N.Y., and Crenshaw, Calif., where community organizations will share in the profits of a store in each community. Starbucks will donate a minimum of $100,000 to a local community organization for the first year of the partnership as it assesses the success of the program and gathers learning in hopes of creating a new type of corporate engagement in communities, the company says.

For the first time, Starbucks Coffee Co. is launching a light roast coffee: Starbucks Blonde Roast.

Starbucks Coffee Co., Seattle, announced the acquisition of Evolution Fresh Inc., San Bernardino, Calif. The $30 million acquisition is part of the coffee company’s commitment to evolve and enhance the customer experience with innovative and wholesome products, the company says. It announced plans to reinvent the $1.6 billion super-premium juice segment and said the acquisition is a significant step in entering the more than $50 billion health and wellness sector.

Starbucks Coffee Co., Seattle, announced that since the launch of its mobile payment technology in January, there have been 26 million mobile transactions to date. In the first nine weeks of the program, there were 3 million transactions, and in comparison for the nine-week period starting in October, there were 6 million transactions, demonstrating a significant jump in customer adoption and use.