Bass Pro signs deal with Starbucks

Starbucks and Bass Pro officials have reached an agreement that makes the Springfield-based sporting goods giant a licensee for the global coffee chain.

Bass Pro spokesman Larry Whiteley said Starbucks’ presence in Springfield’s Outdoor World will probably take the form of a kiosk near the first-floor aquarium, although plans have not been finalized.

“We plan to put (Starbucks) in all of our new stores that open this year,” Whiteley said, adding that a timeline has not been established for adding Starbucks locations to existing Bass Pro stores.

New stores slated to open this year are in Broken Arrow and Tulsa, Okla., Council Bluffs, Iowa, Pearl, Miss., Denver, Clarksville, Ind., and Sevierville, Tenn.

Nick Davis, company spokesperson for Starbucks, said there are two types of Starbucks stores – company- operated stores and licensed stores.

“The Starbucks location going into Bass Pro Shops will be a licensed store,” Davis said, adding that the difference is that licensees manage and staff the licensed locations rather than Starbucks.

Starbucks, Davis said, works closely with licensees to launch the locations.

“What licensed stores do is offer the licensee the chance to build their overall business by offering their customers the complete Starbucks experience on premise,” Davis said. Other licensee locations nationwide include stores inside airports, hospitals, grocery stores and on college campuses.

Both Davis and Whiteley declined to share terms of the licensing agreement.

Staffing for Bass Pro’s Starbucks locations has not yet been determined, Whiteley said. The kiosks might have Bass Pro employees assigned solely to the Starbucks kiosks, or employees at Bass Pro’s restaurants may rotate to staff the locations. In Springfield, that might be staff from Hemingway’s Blue Water Café.

More secondary revenue sources are on the way for the sporting goods retailer.

Bass Pro operates Islamorada Fish Co. restaurants in three Florida stores –

Islamorada, Dania Beach and Fort Myers – and will continue to expand the restaurant line, adding one at Branson Landing in 2006. Bass Pro acquired the seafood restaurant when it bought the Worldwide Sportsmen in Islamorada, Fla.

Bass Pro is developing another restaurant for its stores.

“We’re working on a barbecue concept that will be in some of our new stores,” Whiteley said.

Specific locations are under discussion.

Small world

Another agreement with a global business is putting the Bass Pro name in front of millions. Walt Disney Co.’s “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” released nationwide June 22, features the Bass Pro logo in scenes with Nascar racing.

“(Disney) had contacted us because they knew of our involvement with Nascar, as they contacted a lot of other Nascar sponsors,” Whiteley said of the product placement agreement.

He declined to disclose the financial details but said it is a coup for Bass Pro.

“It’s what we try to do – get that brand out there in front of the public as much as possible,” he said.