The first coffee shop of the Stars Coffee chain, created on the basis of the Russian business of the American company Starbucks, which left the country, was opened in Moscow. The institution was opened on Novy Arbat.
The network’s logo is similar to the previous one: based on a two-star circle on the sides, Stars are written on the top and Coffee on the bottom. Timur Yunusov (Timati), one of the owners of the network, explained that the mermaid with two tails in the logo was replaced by the Swan Princess, which looks like her.
A new company tagline appeared on the Stars Coffee profile: “Bucks gone, stars left.”
Screenshots of the main page of the new website of the coffee shop chain also appeared on social networks, where it offers the “best coffee” (the spelling is preserved – “socialbites.ca”).
Alcohol and waiters
In addition to the standard coffee shop, the chain will have two more formats.
Second, Stars and Redbox (an Asian restaurant chain owned by Timati and Anton Pinsky).
“It will be a sushi bar combined with a coffee shop. And there will be several premium points, closer to restaurants where there will be alcohol and a different menu, ”said Timati.
“There will be two or three of these cafes that will be premium class, they will be closer to a restaurant in concept, they will have an alcohol menu. These establishments will be on a higher level with waiters. We are planning the first point in Aviapark mall,
— added business partner Anton Pinsky.
There was no alcohol sale at Starbucks.
What’s on the menu?
After the rebrand, the restaurants retained different types of coffee alongside sandwiches, salads, pastas, pastries and desserts.
The cups at the updated Starbucks will also be signed, as before. But they will no longer write the name of the guest by hand – for this it is planned to use a special thermal printer. Regular drinks from Starbucks won’t be on the menu either.
“We don’t copy Starbucks. “We’re not reopening,” Pinsky said. “We are opening a completely different business and we hope to increase our hits from the products we sell here. You don’t need to compare us.”
The creators of Stars Coffee guarantee that the coffee will remain of high quality. Timati said that milk and syrups will be purchased from Russian suppliers, while coffee will be brought from Latin America and Africa.
Pinsky added that Stars Coffee plans to launch its own coffee roaster. “Now we are selecting facilities for production and have already ordered equipment, we are considering launching in late September or early October.”
The menu of the updated coffee shop includes espresso, americano and filter coffee, as well as chilled frappe coffee in various variations, various lattes and hot chocolate. Prices range from 140 rubles for a small espresso to 395 rubles for a large frappe.. The Chef’s Dishes category includes two sandwiches worth 365-590 rubles, as well as pasta and salad.
According to the network’s new owners, the food was brought in before it was frozen, but they will now “cook it on the spot”. They said that frappuccito will appear on the menu instead of frappuccino, but it will taste different.
Timati promised that at every point the prices would be the same as in the opened coffee shop.
“We will stay on the same average bill that people are used to when they come here for coffee and a bite to eat. “Prices will not change,” he said.
Expansion plans
The new owners of the network promised that all Stars Coffee stores will open before the end of September. They also said they keep all the jobs.
130 institutions: 90 in Moscow, St. Petersburg and regions after 40. [открытия] Facilities on the Arbat will continue to operate in Moscow and St. Petersburg will open 10 more, and then about two or three restaurants a day. We plan to open everything by the end of September. “The next point will open at the main office of Sberbank,” Pinsky said.
Oleg Eskindarov, head of the holding company Sindika (which, together with Yunusov and Pinsky, bought the Starbucks business), stated that the Stars Coffee network could expand and outlets could be opened in new cities where Starbucks had not been before.
“If we see our financial return estimates come true, we will immediately start opening up in new locations, possibly in new cities. Of course Moscow and St. Petersburg will continue to be our base points,” said Eskindarov.
The owners stated that Starbucks cannot return to the occupied premises.
“There is no way for Starbucks to return to these facilities. Starbucks was operating in Russia through its Turkish franchise. So we physically bought the business from the franchisee,” Pinsky said.
He added that the Stars Coffee mobile app will go live today and unused spots on the previous Starbucks network will be transferred.
In early March, Starbucks stopped supplying its products due to the Russian military operation in Ukraine and closed its coffee shops in the Russian Federation. On May 23, he announced that he had finally decided to leave the Russian market. The company, which has been operating in the country for 15 years, has closed 130 workplaces.
The assets of the American chain of coffee shops were jointly purchased by rapper Timur Yunusov (Timati), businessman Anton Pinsky and the Sindika company. According to Mikhail Burmistrov, Managing Director of Infoline Analytics, the purchase amount is unlikely to exceed 700 million rubles due to a significant discount. At the same time, the head of the retail department of CORE.XP, Marina Malakhatko estimated the deal in the range of 1.6-3 billion rubles.