Starbucks Corp is to more than double its number of locations in China by 2021, increasing the company’s bet on a country that chief executive officer Howard Schultz says could eventually be a bigger market than the US.
The chain will have 5,000 stores in China, excluding Hong Kong, within five years, up from about 2,300 now, the Seattle-based company said in a statement.
Starbucks, which currently gets about 13 percent of its revenue from the Asia-Pacific region, is promoting Belinda Wong (王靜瑛) to chief executive officer of Starbucks China.
Schultz’s ambition to make Starbucks bigger in China than the US would still be a way off: The chain has about 12,900 domestic locations, but third-quarter same-store sales climbed 7 percent in the country, compared with US growth of 4 percent.
Starbucks also recently began selling a new line of tea drinks across the Asia-Pacific region and is to open a larger-size roastery store in China next year to further tout its brand.
Wong, who joined Starbucks in 2000, will oversee the plans to double the company’s Chinese cafes. She is also to be in charge of digital and e-commerce there and will continue to report to John Culver, group president of Starbucks global retail.
Separately, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and its foundation are investing US$25 million over five years in food safety research in China, as the world’s largest retailer seeks to improve its foothold in the country more than two years after it was hit by high-profile product scandals.
The funding is to support projects in applied science, education and communications, according to the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer at a briefing in Beijing yesterday, where it also launched the Walmart Food Safety Collaboration Center to bring together local and international research.
“By bringing together the best food-safety thinkers from across the food ecosystem, from farmers to suppliers, retailers to policy regulators, we’ll accelerate food safety awareness and help make Chinese families safer and healthier,” Wal-Mart chief executive officer Doug McMillon said at the event.
Wal-Mart, which is overhauling its business globally to meet the challenge from e-commerce, had struggled over the years to adapt its stores to meet Chinese consumers’ tastes and compete with local online grocery providers. The retailer earlier this month boosted its stake in China’s second-largest e-commerce website JD.com Inc (京東), bolstering its China presence.
The new center will facilitate research in areas such as the root causes of food-borne illnesses and developing solutions for China’s food supply chain.
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