Starbucks Restores Schultz; Shares Up Most Since 2006

By Peter Robison and Mary Jane Credeur

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Howard Schultz was peddling a unique idea when he turned a Seattle coffee-bean roaster into a chain of U.S. cafes called Starbucks Corp. Now he is returning to lead a company battered by the competitive landscape it created.

Investors responded by sending the shares up the most in almost two years in U.S. trading.

Starbucks trained customers to demand better-tasting coffee. In the process, it spawned thousands of mom-and-pop imitators and enticed even McDonald's Corp., the world's biggest restaurant company, to open coffee counters.

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