Starbucks China plans to increase the amount of stores in China, its second largest market, by 50 percent to 9,000 stores by 2025. It also plans to double its sales and quadruple its operating income through efforts including store expansion, growth in Omni channel, as well as at-home and on-the-go coffee services.

In the past ten years, Starbucks stores on the Chinese mainland have grown by nearly 10 times and have been on track to reach 6,000 stores by the end of this year. By 2025, the company is expected to open a new store every nine hours to add 3,000 new stores in about 300 cities throughout the country, said Belinda Wong, chairwoman of Starbucks China, at the biennial Investor Day conference on Sept 13.

In first and second tier cities, Starbucks China is going to optimize its store portfolio and density in key trade zone. For example, at its reserve stores, Starbucks China is expected to elevate its connections with communities through smarter omni-channel services and operate about 2,500 greener stores.

Delivering locally-relevant coffee innovation is key to the implementation of the plan, according to the company. In the next three years, Starbucks China is investing $220 million on launching its Digital Technology Innovation center in the country to further facilitate its digitization of store operations and in-house technology and data infrastructure.

wangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn