Starbucks' Big Mug

CEO Howard Schultz has ambitious plans for his company and the country, with a shot of jobs, java and juice

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Martin Schoeller for TIME

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

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Starbucks is also adding new products--lots of them. In early June, the company announced the acquisition of La Boulange, a Bay Area bakery chain and supplier that could vastly improve its mediocre baked goods. Late last year, Starbucks spent $30 million in cash to acquire Evolution Fresh, a company that makes and markets fresh juice drinks. There is now just one Evolution Fresh retail store. When you consider that Starbucks has more than 11,000 units in the U.S., the math can get mouthwatering.

Of course, the world's biggest coffee retailer is by no means done with coffee. The company is expanding rapidly in China, where its stores offer a rare oasis of retail cleanliness and peace in bustling cities. Schultz envisions 1,500 stores there--tripling their presence--by 2015. And in the U.S., a new retail iteration is being developed along the lines of what Italians call a birreria: a combination coffee, wine and beer bar that also offers small plates of food. It's a place to stand or sit and, more important, it addresses parts of the day--such as after work and evenings--when Starbucks isn't all that busy.

Its future once looked tepid, but Starbucks has become a company that retail analysts say will likely double its footprint over the next two years, in part by replicating the coffee experience in other categories. "We've transformed Starbucks Coffee Co. over the last three years," says Schultz. "Over the next 18 months or so, we're going to transform the nature of the American corporation." That's asking a lot of a cup of coffee, but Schultz clearly thinks he can brew it.

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