SOURCING

SUCCE SS
Project Partners
SOURCING THE
RIGHT BLEND IN
PROCUREMENT
Written by James Henderson
Produced by Richard Durrant
S TA R B U C K S

THE WORK OF EELCO VAN DER ZANDE

AND HIS EMEA SOURCING TEAM AT
STARBUCKS IS REAPING REWARDS

G
iven its obvious presence “I would say expanding
on the high streets of
our relationships with
Europe, Middle East and
Africa (EMEA), it is difficult to believe our key suppliers is very
that the first Starbucks in the important, getting a
region opened just 20 years ago in better and better view
London. The brand has exploded
in popularity in the intermittent
on who are the right
years, and there are now thousands suppliers to work with
of outlets across the territory. and developing the
The scale of the Starbucks’ footprint
supply model with them”
brings inevitable challenges in terms
of its supply chain, sourcing and EELCO VAN DER ZANDE
procurement operations, especially Director Strategic Sourcing for EMEA,
when you consider the wide spread Starbucks
of its stores across the geography,
and that around 85% its sites are leading to an inconsistent
not company-run, instead being execution. Enter Eelco
run as a licensed operation. van der Zande, the
Up until three years ago, the company’s director of
sourcing and procurement approach strategic sourcing for
of sourcing partners was to a certain EMEA who today leads
extent fragmented, from time to time the team for direct and

4
w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 5
 Alpro’s sustainability
We’re proud to be the market
leader in plant-based food and drink.
We supply the food service industry with plant-based
story
products that not only deliver on taste and performance, Proudly brought
but also on sustainability too. We’re lucky to work with to you by
ingredients that inherently require fewer resources than
animal-based ones. But our journey doesn’t stop there. We work
tirelessly to ensure that we minimise our impact on the environment at
every stage of our production process – from plant to pack. So we’re proud to
deliver our partners quality products that help them offer greener choices without
compromise. Here are some of the steps we take to sustain our planet.

GMO
GMO? No thanks
We never have and never will use genetically modified ingredients.
The whole flow, from crop to pack, is certified GMO-free according
to the ProTerra standards. We ask all our suppliers to sign up to our
ethical charter and we can trace the source of all our ingredients.

Deforestation? Definitely not Sourcing? Only the best

Knowing where every ingredient comes We always start by carefully selecting the highest
from and keeping track of our suppliers quality nuts, oats, rice, coconuts and soya beans.
means that we guarantee our ingredients We work in close collaboration with farmers and build
never come from deforested areas. long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with them.

Ecologically and socially sustainable

All our soya beans are ProTerra certified, which not only guarantees GMO-free beans, but also
means that good working conditions for the farmers and good agricultural practices are followed
throughout. For example, our almonds come from the Mediterranean, where the orchards are small
and traditional. 90% of the orchards are “fed” by rain and don’t need extra irrigation.

Local? As much as possible

We source our grains, beans and nuts as locally as possible. All our almonds come from
the Mediterranean and more than half of our soya beans come from European countries,
such as France, Italy, and Austria. The rest come from Canada.

Transport? Keep it light

We go to great lengths to keep our transport footprint
as light as possible. Sometimes, that means floating our
goods to the factory down a river or a canal. After all,
fewer air and land miles mean less fuel and cleaner air.

A sustainable journey in our factories too Sustainable packs

We’re fanatical about monitoring our energy efficiency, Our Tetra Paks are fully
reducing carbon emissions and limiting water usage recyclable and designed
everywhere we can. And we’ve started putting waste to impose minimum impact
heat and renewable energy sources to good use too. on the environment.
 SOURCING
SUCCESS
indirect spending for Starbucks EMEA,
covering all COGS, operational and
capital spend to support a business
that generates over $1bn in revenue A great deal of the success of the
sourcing team is down to its talent
annually. The Dutch native came to
and diversity, according to Van
Starbucks with logistics and sourcing
der Zande. “Having a lot of good
experience in Europe and Asia and people, good talents with the right
quickly recognised the challenge. mindset is absolutely critical. I
“It was important that we brought believe the sourcing function really
together how all of our partners were will change through the years from
sourcing; there was a lot of good work much more internally focused and
being done, but we felt that there was looking at cost towards more of
a lack of consistency and that perhaps an ‘outside-in’ and relationship
the right tools were not being used management focus.
consistently. The various partners
“I think with that it brings a
were also reporting into a number of
different mindset, and also a
different managers so we perhaps different skillset that is required. It
were not maximising our output as a means having the right people that
team,” comments Van der Zande from embrace change is just crucial to
the company’s hub in Amsterdam. the success of sourcing teams.
“We thought about how we could On top of that, in my view another
benefit from using standard systems enabler to team success is having
and processes and really look to real diversity in the team. I would
professionalise the sourcing function. describe diversity in different
ways – it’s either about cultural
A large part of that was to free up our
backgrounds, but it’s also about
senior people from admin as there
gender, it’s about age, and I think
was evidence that it was very time by looking at the right balance
consuming for a lot of them. Another in your team from a diversity
important piece of work was the perspective, you get better
sourcing teams.”

w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 7
“There is a lot of focus on creating end-
to-end visibility in our supply chain and
that will allow us to better understand
demand and supply patterns”
EELCO VAN DER ZANDE, Director Strategic Sourcing for EMEA, Starbucks
S TA R B U C K S

conversation with our cross-functional

peers about how to create value in
a defined way. So that was an open
talk about costs, innovation, risk
and quality, which – amongst other
outcomes – led to us changing the
team structure so that we are much
more focused on licensees and
franchises and how they are organised
from a sourcing perspective.”
This approach has fostered
a closer working relationship
with the company’s licensees
as strategic partners, with very
regular communication between
licensee groups and Starbucks.
“I would say the most important
thing for our business to keep in mind
is that although the licensees operate
our brand, and they have the rights to
operate our brand, we almost need
to deserve the right to work with
them in terms of investing in their
business and spending their money.
So, the acknowledgement that the
licensee is actually the investor and
the entrepreneur and it’s their money
that we eventually are able to spend,
that recognition is just super crucial

10
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S U P P LY C H A I N

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europe.businesschief.com 11
S TA R B U C K S

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12
in my view,” says Van der Zande. we became a sustainable supporter
“It’s a very close collaboration with of driving business. That meant
our licensees that we require, and it’s being clear to other departments that
exciting, because creating a ‘demand we are not cost-cutters or savings
driven value chain’ gives a very chasers, but rather a team to help
entrepreneurial spirit to how we work.” improving margins and ensuring
Within the business itself, Van der the top and bottom lines align.
Zande says that one of his main goals “And in our company, as we are
was to make sourcing be seen as a so brand and product focused, by
real value creator and ally. “It was definition product related spend gets
important that with the programme a lot of attention. So we worked hard
of work that we were doing we were to also focus on improvements in non-
not considered the disruptor,” he product spend categories, which I
comments. “We didn’t want to take think was a really valuable thing to do.”
exciting work away from people, rather The team has also been driven

Video: Starbucks Year of Good

w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 13
 “At the moment we
have about 9mn mobile
paying customers,
and in the US at the
moment already one
out of three customers
are actually using
mobile order and pay”
EELCO VAN DER ZANDE, Director
Strategic Sourcing for EMEA, Starbucks
S TA R B U C K S

by a recognition of the importance of

indirect spending. “There will always NUMBER
be more of focus on direct, but indirect
can and does play absolutely a pivotal
OF
role. Take, for example, what marketing EMPLOYEES
services can do to us or the wider benefits
of procuring 100% green energy to drive
our corporate sustainability agenda.
228,000
These are really important things for us
and it gives the opportunity to actually
talk a little bit more to our consumers
about what we buy and how we buy.”

16
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europe.businesschief.com 17
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 By Van der Zande’s own admission, one of its three key pillars of growth.
Starbucks has perhaps been guilty of “It is and will be a major driver of our
taking quite a conservative approach business,” Van der Zande says. “We
when it comes to technology adoption expect and have already achieved
in the supply chain in past years. a lot with what we call ‘Mobile order
But, he says, its efforts have been & Pay’, and its functionality. At the
accelerated in the last two years, as moment we have about 9mn mobile
the company has embraced what paying customers, and in the US at
technology can offer, to the extent the moment already one out of three
that Starbucks considers digitisation customers are actually using mobile

w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 19
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order and pay. That’s quite impressive
and our challenge now is to actually COMPANY
expand that platform globally. Each
FOUNDED IN

1971
customer coming into Starbucks,
whether it’s a company-owned store
or a licenced store, should be able to
order online, or through its mobile app.
Through that platform we can actually
engage much closer with the customer
and actually further grow our business.
Then, back to the adoption of
technology in the supply chain:

w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 21
“There is still significant work to do patterns. We’re working on supply and
on the supply chain and sourcing demand maps, and by doing so that
side, but we are making progress gives us a lot of information in order
and digitisation is absolutely key to to further optimise supply chains,
our supply chain strategy. In the two specifically our source to pay function.”
years since Starbucks brought in Clearly, great strides have been made
new, strong supply chain leaders in by Van der Zande and his sourcing
both global and regional teams, there team supporting Starbucks’ presence
has been a lot of focus on creating across Europe, Middle East and Africa;
end-to-end visibility in our supply that 100% of its supplier base comes
chain and that will allow us to better from ethical sources is something
understand demand and supply he is, rightly, very proud of. But there

22
is clearly still an ambition to iterate right suppliers to work with and
and continue to refine the function. developing the supply model with
“We certainly want to continue them. By doing that I think we get
to grow with our licensees and to a better supplier development
strengthening our sourcing and recognition programme, which
collaboration with them is will set us up for further success
something I am very passionate and future growth: Our licensees,
about investing in,” he says. our suppliers and Starbucks.”
“I would say expanding our
relationships with our key suppliers
is very important, getting a better
and better view on who are the

w w w. s t a r b u c k s . c o m 23
www.starbucks.com