Starbucks is opening a store in China every 15 hours
Starbucks already operates more than 3,000 stores in China and plans to add 2,000 by 2021
By Angelica LaVito
Starbucks is opening one store in China every 15 hours, the company’s China CEO Belinda Wong told “Squawk Box.”
China has become Starbucks’ second largest and fastest growing market, and one the company expects to eclipse the U.S. market one day. Starbucks already operates more than 3,000 stores in the country and plans to increase that number to 5,000 by 2021.
The company opened a 30,000-square-foot Reserve Roastery in Shanghai, its flashiest commitment to its growing Chinese business. It’s the second Starbucks’ Roastery to open and is twice the size of its flagship location in Seattle.
“To us, we open 500 plus stores a year, but to us, it’s not about 500. It’s about opening a store 500 different times because you’re in a different neighbourhood and we’ve got to build that relationship with our customer,” Wong said.
