Starbucks Annual Shareholder Meeting: Live Blog - Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX)

Starbucks Corporation SBUX will hold its shareholder meeting Wednesday afternoon. Below is a live blog of the event.

The meeting is expected to begin at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

02:05:33pm: Katie Seawall, VP of category brand management, said that Reserve coffee is now in over 1,200 stores worldwide. She said 99% of the coffee will be verified as ethically produced this year.

01:55:12pm: 2015 guidance is $1.55 to $1.57 per share on a non-GAAP basis.

01:46:33pm: Maw: Starbucks takes its investments very seriously and ensures they drive the right level of return.

01:44:59pm: Scott Maw, CFO: "We saw records in revenue, cash flows, operating income, and our shareholders benefitted."

01:43:20pm: Schultz wrote in a journal, "The Willy Wonka of Coffee," nine years ago. He envisioned a grand experience, which became the Roastery.

01:39:01pm: Investors are annoyed by the lackluster video feed of today's event.

01:33:17pm: Schultz reiterated his commitment to hire 10,000 veterans by 2018. He strongly believes they will exceed that goal.

01:32:33pm: Schultz told a story about a woman who was living out of her car but turned her life around after becoming a part-time barista. Her husband was sick and Starbucks paid for her insurance. She is now a district manager who manages several stores.

01:23:41pm: 3,000 district managers were brought to Seattle last fall for a special gathering.

01:22:28pm: This has been a significant year of investments, $233m in healthcare benefits, $73m in matched 401k contributions for FY 2014.

01:20:50pm: Starbucks has been in Fortune Magazine's list for the 13th consecutive year.

01:18:10pm: Starbucks will do a 2-for-1 stock split on March 30, 2015.

01:17:18pm: Starbucks had a market cap of $250m and had 125 stores 23 years ago. Last week the company served over 75 million customers. There are over 22,000 stores in 66 countries and the firm employs more than 300,000 individuals. Starbucks is now at it's all-time high of $70 billion, Schultz said.

01:11:21pm: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is proud of his company's social impact, and he said that's what this meeting is going to be about.

01:03:15pm: The meeting is starting.

01:02:03pm: Corey DuBrowa, Starbucks' SVP of Communications, briefly deleted his Twitter account but quickly came back online.

Here are some recent links on Starbucks:

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