Starbucks is a household name, and it's no surprise that you can barely walk a block in any major city without bumping into one of their coffee shops. With a long and illustrious history that began in 1971, the Seattle-based brand is renowned for its chain of coffee shops that are spread across the globe. Winsight, a leading B2B information services company that focuses on the food and beverage industry, provides market intelligence and data products to business leaders across all channels where consumers purchase food and beverages. According to their latest news, Starbucks tops the list of successful coffee companies with nearly 30,000 locations around the world.
Costa Coffee is similar to Starbucks in Europe, except that Starbucks also exists there. Interestingly, Costa Coffee was founded in 1971, the same year as Starbucks, in the United Kingdom. They have approximately 3,500 locations, mostly in European countries, and remain very popular despite Starbucks' meteoric rise. Dunkin' Donuts is probably better known for its coffee than for its donuts - a testament to its popularity.
Recently, the company has started to change its name to simply “Dunkin'” to reflect the growing popularity of its coffee and other offerings besides donuts. They have around 11,000 locations, making them one of the largest coffee companies. In addition to coffee, they also offer breakfast sandwiches, bagels and donuts. Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee company with 5,000 locations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and China.
If you're from the United States, you may think of Tim Hortons as Canadian Dunkin' Donuts - not a bad comparison. They serve sandwiches and donuts in addition to coffee - responsible for their rise to fame. McDonald's isn't usually known for its coffee but it is one of the largest coffee companies in the world. The McCafé brand started in 1993 as a complement to fast food restaurants - making it relatively new compared to other companies on this list.
This alone makes its 10,000 stores around the world even more impressive. Not all McDonald's offer McCafé but more are being added every day - we wouldn't be surprised if they eventually become the largest coffee company in the world. Lavazza is the oldest company on this list and also the first not associated with a vast empire of physical stores. Founded in Italy in 1895, Lavazza is very popular and one of the most famous coffee brands in the world.
Lavazza's popularity stems from its impressive selection of high-quality coffee beans and equipment for making coffee. Peet's Coffee doesn't have an impressive range of stores (only 200 locations) but its coffee is sold in 14,000 stores around the world - making it one of the biggest coffee brands. Unlike other companies discussed so far, Peet's focuses entirely on the United States where all but one of its stores are located. Even so, their large number of stores selling their product makes them one of the largest producers of coffee despite their relatively narrow geographical reach.
Gloria Jean's is an Australian coffee company with 1,000 stores in nearly 40 global markets. Despite their global presence they are less well-known than other brands - mainly because almost half of their locations are in Australia. Even so, strictly following numbers Gloria Jean's is one of the most famous coffee chains in the world. At one point Tully would have been close to topping this list but recent supply chain problems have reduced Tully to a shadow of its former self.
Over the past 2 or 3 years Tully's has closed a large portion of its locations dramatically reducing its presence around the world. Still they have more than 300 open locations and are one of the most famous and recognizable brands - mainly because of their past prominence. Rounding out this top ten list is Caribou Coffee. Founded in 1992 (a year before McCafé) in Minnesota Caribou has slowly grown to become one of the largest and most recognized coffee companies in the world. Caribou Coffee has around 600 locations worldwide and like Dunkin' Donuts, Tim Hortons and Starbucks they also serve snacks, baked goods and other beverages. Before Starbucks was founded in 1971 coffee shops were not very common outside Europe and Australia.
The chain began as a simple potting shed used to roast coffee beans and a single cart used to sell it after backpacking through Alaska Kimberly and John Puckett founded Caribou Coffee with a goal to capture their adventure in a cup of coffee. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is a Southern California-based chain that started in 1963 as a roaster and now has more than 1,200 locations around the world by focusing on image and creating unique flavors it occupies a place in consumers minds becoming brand to go when they really want something special. In conclusion, Starbucks remains at the top spot when it comes to being the biggest coffee shop brand worldwide with nearly 30,000 locations around the globe followed by Dunkin' Donuts with 11,000 stores worldwide while McDonald's comes third with 10,000 stores worldwide.
