Starbucks, the world's largest coffee-shop chain, said yesterday it bought 90 per cent of the operator of its Beijing and Tianjin stores for an undisclosed sum in a move to cement control over business in what the company calls its most important market outside the United States.
It bought the stake in Beijing Mei Da Coffee, which runs 62 Starbucks stores in northern China's two biggest cities, from Taiwanese private equity fund H&Q Asia Pacific and other shareholders.
'You can tell from the smiles on all our faces that this is a very satisfactory deal for all of us,' Wang Jinlong, the president of Starbucks Greater China, said in a press conference in Beijing yesterday.
State-owned food and beverage company Beijing Sanyuan owns the remaining 10 per cent of Mei Da.
Starbucks is just the latest multinational retailer to gain full control over its mainland business since China lifted restrictions on foreign ownership in retailing at the beginning of last year.
'We strongly believe in joint-venture licensing arrangements in new markets and eventually buying back equity,' said Martin Coles, the president of Starbucks International.