NOTTINGHAM | The Hub (Nottingham Train Station) | Pro

[iamtheSTIG]

construction of the core for the new concourse:



The bridge looking out from the bottom of the car park to what will be the new concourse:

[Harrington]

Originally Posted by iamtheSTIG

construction of the core for the new concourse:

I don't understand what is happening here.

[BeestonLad]

A stair / lift core for passengers to access the Tram Station above?

[blades_lad]

I was going to say that it looks like a lift core to the first level

[goosewing]

Originally Posted by Harrington

I don't understand what is happening here.

As was said above, this is a lift core to get up to Tram concourse level

[deshnoodlé]

Originally Posted by MattN

Such as claiming to have never made a profit in this country. So kind of them, then, to continue trading and expanding here anyway!

actually, they really don't make any money here. even if you disregard their royalty payments to the netherlands and their central coffee buying operation in switzerland. they've spent money like the 'global market leader' that they are, securing all the best (and most expensive) sites, expanding aggressively, and the great british public just haven't bought as much of their coffee as they would like.

why they're still doing it after all this time is anyones guess. i suppose they think that a strong uk presence is important, and with most of their costs already sunk (and, i'm sure, many expensive leases tied up for many years), i suppose the best plan is to stick with it.

as it is, however, by paying money to profitable operations in lower tax regimes they are actually *increasing* the global tax cost of starbucks inc.

as for the 'schemes' they actually use.. well paying a royalty for the right to use the starbucks brand is fair enough (though there's a suggestion that the amount is a bit on the high side). of course they put the operation that receives that money in the netherlands, because the netherlands has special low tax rates for royalties. if you've got a beef with that then take it up with the dutch government (which sets the low rate precisely to attract this sort of thing) or the european union (which explicitly forbids the uk taxman from trying to get a slice).

having a central body for buying coffee and selling it around the group is also sensible.. the tax rules prevent that body from charging more for the coffee than an independent company would, so the uk taxman isn't really losing out.

it's not correct, as someone claimed, that starbucks has a duty to to the shareholders pay as little tax as possible. they have to act in the best interests.. and that might mean putting the reputation of the brand ahead of tax efficiency. however, if they had a big european operation that didn't make use of all the opportunities offered (explicitly) by the single market, then shareholders would have every right to ask why.

the important thing is to remember that the tax they pay is irrelevant to the amazingly awful coffee they sell.

[Skipping_Pig]

Starbucks pulled out of Australia as they weren't making any money. I wonder what makes the UK market so special that they can justify continuing to operate at a loss for so many years?

[Marcypoo]

Originally Posted by Skipping_Pig

Starbucks pulled out of Australia as they weren't making any money. I wonder what makes the UK market so special that they can justify continuing to operate at a loss for so many years?

Australia is Australia though, it's a bit of a non entity.

Anyway, coffee has an incredibly large gross profit, it's highly unlikely I doesn't make any money.

[Skipping_Pig]

Losing money is losing money.

[pharmj]

I think the fact that Australia is an island in the middle of nowhere and everything is hundreds of miles apart and therefore expensive to import and transport about might have something to do with it. The UK on the other hand is easy to get to/around for produce

[deshnoodlé]

Originally Posted by Marcypoo

Australia is Australia though, it's a bit of a non entity.

Anyway, coffee has an incredibly large gross profit, it's highly unlikely I doesn't make any money.

selling coffee in all the locations with major footfall has incredibly large overheads. an awful lot of the margin on sales goes straight to the landlord (and the the government as business rates).

coffee retailing is a free and open market, which means that there's no easy money to be made.

[deshnoodlé]

Originally Posted by pharmj

I think the fact that Australia is an island in the middle of nowhere and everything is hundreds of miles apart and therefore expensive to import and transport about might have something to do with it. The UK on the other hand is easy to get to/around for produce

also, they're quite serious about coffee down there. they got the habit from southern europeans (greeks and italians, mainly).. so maybe that watered down american chain-gunk just didn't have a market?

[mattr]

Aussies know there coffee , they don't starbucks shit that's why they don't do any good three...plus big Italian population over there drinking coffee we never even heard of !