Mr Coffee Coffee Makers

I woke up and smelt the coffee

Is Howard Schultz a madman or a genius? A "poor boy from Brooklyn", he spent 13 years building up Starbucks from a handful of branches to a global empire before deciding to step back. And after he had borrowed millions to buy it.

Then, nearly eight years later, when it all started to go wrong for the coffee company, which was in serious free-fall, he chose to return to the helm. Fortunately for Mr Schultz and the millions of coffee drinkers the firm supplies daily, he has been able to restore the company to record health.

Mr Schultz, 57, stepped down as chief executive officer of Starbucks in 2000. He says: "As December 2007 drew to a close I knew that Starbucks would not make its projected earnings. I was not only coming back as CEO but also to hold the mantle after the company's worst three-month performance in its history as a public company. I felt I had to take responsibility for some bad decisions when I saw things start to go seriously wrong.

"We were engaging with the wrong things - growth that had spiraled out of control and our Wall Street share price - instead of the business of serving coffee and engaging our customers."

When figures which had soared for 15 years - "since 1992 we had been on a magic carpet ride, where everything we touched seemed to turn to gold" - started to go the other way, Mr Schultz was not given much chance of success by many of his own senior management team when he returned to the front line. "They didn't believe in each other, in the mission to transform the company, or that I was the right person to come back." Within months, nine of 11 senior managers were gone.

In the autumn of 2010 Starbucks posted its best performance in its near 40-year history -- more than $10 billion in revenue (over £6 billion), with 60 million visitors a week in 16,000 stores in 54 countries.

But there is no celebration or complacency about the restored sales from Mr Schultz. "We can never forget that coffee is a discretionary purchase and that there are more competitors than ever before waiting to take food off our table." And then he knows a thing or two about coffee. A "five-cups-a-day man", he grew up on a New York housing estate, starting out in the business world as a Xerox salesman before joining Swedish kitchenware company, Hammarplast. One of Hammarplast's clients for upmarket coffee-makers was a small Seattle firm, Starbucks. It had a handful of outlets selling coffee beans and teas.

Krups FMF5 Pro-Aroma 10-Cup Thermal Coffee Maker Individual Pieces ...

Make a better cup of coffee with the superior design of the Pro-Aroma 10 Cup Thermal Coffee Maker. Double walled, vacuum sealed stainless steel carafe maintains temperature longer. Pause and brew feature lets you remove the carafe to pour without stopping the brewing cycle. Programmable to brew hot, fresh coffee 24 hours a day. Bright, easy-to-read LED panel with programmable timer, clock and auto-off functions. Descaling measure calculates when it's time for a thorough cleaning. Empty water reservoir safeguards overheating the machine by automatically shutting unit off when empty. Audible signal lets you know when brewing is complete. Locking carafe lid seals in heat and flavor. Electrical cord stores conveniently in the base of the machine. Weight: 6 lbs. Watts: 1100. Dimensions: 8.5 wide x 8 deep x 13 high. Zappos makes every attempt to provide accurate information for each electronic product. Manufacturer packaging and specifications may be different from the information provided. Please note, Zappos gladly accepts returns on all electronic products for up to 365 days from the original purchase date. In order to process your return and refund, returned electronic products must be unused and in the original condition and packaging in which it was purchased and include any manuals, cabling and accessories.

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