Howard Schultz's Plans For A Global Teavana

Starbucks SBUX CEO and Chairman Howard Shultz is excited about the company's Teavana acquisition, and he showed it gushingly on CNBC's Squawk on the Street Wednesday morning. "When we acquired Teavana, we acquired a jewel of a company that had basically 350 stores in malls of America, however, ah, their business did not include any kind of a bar, in terms of being able to make a beverage, and no stores in neighborhoods across the country…What we plan to do is leverage the capability of Starbucks in the completely complimentary business that we have actually been in for 40 years, but now we're going to bring Teavana to the country of America, all over the, every city, in Canada, and at some point I think we can bring Teavana to Asia as well," said Schultz. "But this is the beginning, I think, of at least 1,000 Teavana stores over the next few years. What we can do for tea, what we've done for coffee." Schultz called the experience of Teavana zen-like, and said no coffee will be offered in the stores. He wants Teavana to stand on its own merit. In addition to tea, however, the company will be incorporating foods. These will be items that are meant to pair with selects on their tea menu. Related: Drink Wine Responsibly; Invest in Beverage Stocks Profitably "Tea is twice the size of the coffee category globally. Most people don't realize that. It's a $90 billion global category hot and cold that is ripe for innovation," said Schultz. "So if we take the foundation of Teavana, which is sourcing and blending the world's finest teas, and when we bring the capability, the discipline, the romance and theater of what we can do with Starbucks, there certainly can be a global opportunity for Teavana over the next number of years." According to Schultz, there won't be any Teavanas found side-by-side with Starbucks. In regards to launching the new Teavana in New York City, he said "We're ready for Broadway," going on to say that you'll see many more Teavanas in the high-profile cities of America soon. Jason Cunningham had no position with the mentioned entities while writing this article. Visit Jason on Twitter at @JasonCunningham and @Benzinga.