Starbucks Corp, the largest US coffee-shop chain, will sell bottled coffee at stores in Japan and Taiwan to gain part of a growing US$10 billion-a-year market led by Coca-Cola Co.
Starbucks signed an agreement with Suntory Ltd, Japan's fourth-largest brewer, to make and distribute chilled drinks in Japan.
A separate venture with President Starbucks Coffee Taiwan Ltd (統一星巴克), will distribute products in Taiwan, Seattle-based Starbucks said in a statement.
Starbucks's venture may earn more in Japan than the US$30 million it gets annually from bottled Frappuccino coffee drinks in the US, CIBC World Markets Corp analyst John Glass said in a report.
The company introduced Frappuccino in US grocery stores in 1996 in a venture with PepsiCo Inc.
Starbucks, which has more than 9,000 stores, is starting retail distribution in Asia as part of the company's plans to extend its growth, said Gerry Lopez, president, Starbucks Global Consumer products.
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo's rival in the global soft drink industry, sells canned Georgia coffee drinks in Japan, one of its most profitable markets, wrote Merrill Lynch & Co analyst Christine Farkas in a May 17 report. Farkas is based in New York and has a "neutral" rating on Coca-Cola.
Georgia is the No. 1 coffee sold in Japan, said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, which tracks the industry.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last