Buyer Wanted! Starbucks Looks to Unload Another Jet
Six weeks ago, we revealed that Starbucks had put its brand-new, $45 million Gulfstream 550 up for sale the day before announcing plans to cut 6,700 jobs and close an additional 300 stores. It looks like they're not done trimming the corporate fat. The coffee chain put another plane on the market this week—a 2004 Challenger 604 that seats ten.
The brokerage firm marketing the plane doesn't indicate how much the Starbucks is expecting to make from the sale. An expert tells us that while the plane could have gone for well north of $20 million a year ago—or roughly 4.2 million Frappuccinos—the company will have to settle for substantially less now that private jet prices have dropped 30 percent or more. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz won't have to worry about flying commercial jet yet: None of the three planes Starbucks has tried to sell in recent months have sold (and, presumably, are still in use). It is safe to assume, though, that if Starbucks's fleet is eventually diminished, the $475,685 the company spent flying Schultz around in 2008 will drop a bit in 2009. The sales brochure is below.