Starbucks to juice its offerings

Nov 10, 2011, 21:30 GMT

Seattle - The world's largest coffee chain is going on a health binge. Starbucks announced Thursday that it plans to start a chain of juice bars next year and that it had paid 30 million dollars for a high-end juice-maker in California.

The company's founder and chief executive Howard Schulz said the moves would spearhead Starbucks' move into the 50-billion-dollar per year health food market.

'Our intent is to build a national health and wellness brand leveraging our scale, resources and premium product expertise,' said Schultz in a statement.

Schulz said the first juice bars would open early next year on the US west coast, but gave no details about their quantity or what they would be called.

Earlier this year Starbucks dropped the word coffee from its famous mermaid logo in a move that signified its intentions to expand beyond its traditional expertise.

Starbucks said it was attracted to Evolution Juice because of its unique manufacturing process, which uses high pressure pasteurization to ensure that more vitamins are retained than in standard heat pasteurization. The company said it will sell Evolution Juice in its own stores and in premium retailers like Whole Foods.