Responding to China’s growing consumption of coffee, Starbucks has launched a ready-to-drink coffee beverage in China. Starbucks also plans to target China even more intensely by adding at least 80 coffee shops annually to the country.
Digital Journal — The Chinese might be known for their love of tea, but as more young people turn to coffee — a symbol of Western culture — businesses like Starbucks are responding quickly. Today, Starbucks announced the launch of a bottled Frapuccino drink that will first be sold in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.
In Shanghai for the launch, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said:
It’s just the beginning of the growth and development of what we have planned for Starbucks in China.
The company isn’t stopping at just a ready-to-drink mocha beverage. Starbucks plans to add 80 coffee shops annually on the mainland, where annual sales growth is higher than the company’s 18 per cent global target. Starbucks already has close to 300 stores in China.
It’s a sign of the caffeine-tinged times: According to a forecast by Andrea Illy, chairman of Italian roaster illycaffe, China’s coffee consumption could grow to 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes per year within 15 years.
And as AP found, the Chinese are embracing drinks of all sorts:
China’s beverages market offers a tempting target, doubling in size every five years, said the head of the China Beverage Industry Association, Zhao Yali.
Starbucks never backs down from a challenge, and their ambitions for expansions have so fair paid off: sales in North America grew to $1 billion from almost nothing a decade ago, and the company plans to triple its stores globally to 40,000. Venturing into China is a bold and reasonable move for a company dedicated to spreading its brand to foreign markets. It will be interesting to see if the Chinese continue to embrace coffee drinks, even if they are sold for fives time as much as other bottled drinks. Premium coffee is not just for Seattle anymore.
