Starbucks and Small Business Owners Sign Win-Win Agreement... Create Collaborative Beverage and Support Facility Repairs

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Donghyun] Starbucks is creating win-win beverages with small cafe business owners and supporting their facility repairs.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 30th that it signed a win-win agreement with Starbucks, the National Cafe Owners Cooperative, and the Fair Trade Commission.

Recently, the cafe industry has been rapidly growing, but small business owners are facing increasing difficulties due to conflicts over business areas between large and small enterprises, the spread of COVID-19, and intensified competition within the industry. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Fair Trade Commission shared Starbucks' accumulated experience with local small business owners and facilitated communication and mediation between Starbucks and the National Cafe Owners Cooperative to lead to this win-win agreement.

Through this agreement, Starbucks plans to develop win-win beverages utilizing local agricultural products with small business owners. Additionally, Starbucks will share the manufacturing methods of these win-win beverages with small business owners operating cafes and provide raw materials (in limited quantities) to guide Starbucks customers to small business establishments. Furthermore, Starbucks intends to support facility repairs for local small business cafes that are struggling financially or require urgent assistance due to disasters.

At the signing ceremony, a report on private autonomous win-win program activities and a beverage-making demonstration event promoting active government support were held. The beverage-making demonstration symbolized the government's support for private autonomous win-win activities by mixing and sharing beverage ingredients that represent the voluntary communication and cooperation among the agreement participants.

Going forward, the Fair Trade Commission will regularly promote exchange activities and periodically review win-win cooperation programs through the cafe industry large and small enterprise win-win council. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will support smooth communication as a connector between Starbucks and small business owners and continue monitoring and promoting win-win cooperation activities.

Minister Kwon Chilseung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, "This agreement is a meaningful ceremony where Starbucks cooperates with small neighborhood cafes in the same industry to enhance the self-sustainability of small business owners," adding, "We hope it will be a great help to small business owners struggling due to COVID-19, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will also work together to increase new cases of win-win models."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.