It was the perfect recipe to spice up Starbucks’s best-selling Halloween-themed pumpkin latte.
But the coffee chain’s plans to make Geri Horner the face of its popular autumnal drink are said to have been left in tatters following a dispute over whether or not it should be named after the former Ginger Spice.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Ms Horner, 52, had spent ten months in negotiations with Starbucks to front the campaign, which was due to launch within weeks and would have earned her an estimated six-figure sum.
But sources at the US firm say that, at the 11th hour, the Spice Girl wanted to name the coffee the ‘Geri Latte’ which it refused to do, prompting her to pull out.
Last night, Ms Horner declined to comment about the end of the deal but friends of the star denied she had asked for the drink to be named after her.
The coffee chain’s plans to make Geri Horner the face of its popular autumnal drink are said to have been left in tatters
It was the perfect recipe to spice up Starbucks’s best-selling Halloween-themed pumpkin latte
Meanwhile, Starbucks insiders insist this was the case.
There is also a suggestion that her husband, Christian Horner, the Red Bull F1 boss, is ‘no fan’ of the coffee firm.
A source at the chain said: ‘Talks were ongoing for ages. It was a seriously lucrative deal which would have seen Geri’s face all over Starbucks through the month of October. It was major.
‘The negotiations began last year. It was on course to be a goer.
‘Then there was a disagreement over what it would be named and whether it would stay as a simple pumpkin spice latte. That’s when things began to fall apart.
‘It’s a huge blow for Starbucks. Halloween is a massive commercial opportunity for them, so the bosses are furious at it all crumbling at the last minute. It was perfect that Ginger Spice was going to be the face of Starbucks.’
Had Ms Horner signed the deal, she would have followed American star Oprah Winfrey, who in 2014 launched the ‘Oprah Chai Tea’ with the chain. Starbucks started developing the pumpkin spice latte in January 2003 following the successful introduction of winter seasonal drinks, such as the peppermint mocha and eggnog latte.
Sources at the US firm say that, at the 11th hour, the Spice Girl wanted to name the coffee the ‘Geri Latte’ which it refused to do, prompting her to pull out
Starbucks’s Peter Dukes said at its launch that ‘developers realised there was something special around the pumpkin flavour, especially since there wasn’t anything around pumpkin at the time’.
The company experimented with different combinations and ratios of pumpkin to spice, ultimately deciding on a recipe containing no pumpkin.
According to a CNN report in August 2022, Starbucks has sold more than 600 million cups of the drink since its launch.
The singer, who married Mr Horner in 2014, is said to be worth around £41million and in her heyday as a Spice Girl she endorsed global brands such as Pepsi, Kodak and Walkers Crisps.
In recent years F1 drivers have had their own Starbucks cups, with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo both agreeing for drawings of themselves to appear on the brand’s merchandise.
Ms Horner declined to comment on the deal yesterday.
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