STARBUCKS
Description

Wake up and smell the coffee -- Starbucks is everywhere. The world's #1 specialty coffee retailer, Starbucks has some 10,000 coffee shops in more than 30 countries. The shops offer coffee drinks and food items, as well as beans, coffee accessories, teas, and CDs. Starbucks owns about 6,000 of its shops, which are located in 10 countries (mostly in the US), while licensees and franchisees operate more than 4,200 units worldwide (primarily in shopping centers and airports). The company also owns and franchises the Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia chains in the US. In addition, Starbucks markets its coffee through grocery stores and licenses its brand for other food and beverage products.

More than a leader in the retail coffee business, the company has been a force of nature -- its long term expansion plans are to grow to 15,000 US stores and 15,000 international stores.

Starbucks' grocery retail licensing relationship with Kraft continues to develop, allowing the coffee company to gradually expand its selection of coffee beans and teas in supermarkets. Also, the company's 2005 partnership with Jim Beam to produce a Starbucks coffee liqueur permits Starbucks to introduce its newest products to a national audience. But all was not rosy with the Jim Beam/Starbucks collaboration: In reaction to the partnership, Pax World Funds dropped Starbucks from its investment portfolio, citing a policy of not investing in companies that make money from the manufacture of liquor.

FEDEX
Description

Companies that provide transportation of less-than-truckload shipments, in which freight from multiple shippers is consolidated into a truckload. 
 
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:

Although the autonym "less-than-truckload" (LTL) may conjure up visions of an inefficient practice of partially filled trucks on the road, the delivery system is actually a process whereby freight is collected from a variety of shippers before it is taken to its final destination. Ground package delivery companies are considered to be a subset of the LTL industry. LTL is more volatile than other segments of the trucking industry due partially to the fact that packages must be handled more frequently (initial pick up, sorting, delivery), which means that labor can consume up to half of an LTL company's revenue. The industry is also more rigid in terms of the number of its employees. While other elements of the trucking industry can vary the number of employees with the rise and fall of business demands, LTL carriers typically retain its workforce numbers regardless of the business climate. Additionally, whereas their truckload (TL) counterparts have relatively small sales and marketing staffs because of its use of freight brokers, the LTL must employ effective marketing strategies and depend on a sales force in order to remain competitive. Acquisitions and consolidations have become commonplace in the LTL world. YRC Worldwide (formerly Yellow Roadway Corporation) acquired LTL holding company USF Corporation in 2005, bringing USF Bestway, USF Glen Moore, USF Holland, USF Reddaway, and USF Red Star into its fold; however, Red Star became a casualty when it ceased operations and its routes were divided among the remaining USF companies as well as Yellow Roadway's New Penn Motor Express. YRC Regional Transportation was then created to oversee Yellow Roadway's LTL interests. Likewise, package delivery stalwart United Parcel Service purchased Overnite Corporation, which included regional LTL carriers Overnite Transportation and Motor Cargo Industries. Belgium-based DHL Worldwide, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Post, obtained Airborne and rolled its ground delivery operations into its DHL (USA) unit. As Asian (especially China and India) and South American countries become more involved in manufacturing, the need for LTL carriers in those regions should see an increase.