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Shanghai to get upmarket Starbucks' Roastery, Tasting Room

Xinhua, May 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Starbucks is planning to bring an outlet combining a roastery and more premium version of its high-street coffee shops to Shanghai in late 2017, the company announced on Thursday.

The first Starbucks Roastery and Reserve Tasting Room outside of the United States will target China's increasingly discerning coffee junkies.

Starbucks opened its first such roastery in Seattle in December 2014. The concept lets customers see first-hand how coffee is roasted, ground and brewed and sells coffee made from small-batch, single varietal beans.

The Shanghai store will occupy 2,700 square meters in the city's bustling Nanjing Road shopping center.

Increasing thirst for coffee among the traditionally tea-loving Chinese has prompted global coffee chains to expand aggressively in the country. Despite an economic slowdown, there was a net increase of 2,000 in the number of chain coffee shops in China between 2009 and 2014, according to market research firm Euromonitor International.

Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said the Shanghai store will be made "unique and relevant to the Chinese customer" in addition to replicating the immersive experience from its Seattle counterpart.

China is Starbucks' second-largest and fastest-growing market. The U.S. coffee chain has over 2,100 stores in more than 100 Chinese cities. It has previously announced plan to have around 3,400 coffee shops in China by 2019.

Part of its expansion is to open more high-end coffee shops to retain its market dominance increasingly challenged by rivals ranging from Costa and McDonald's McCafe in the West to Pacific Coffee and Caffe Bene in Asia. It now operates 55 Starbucks Reserve stores, smaller versions of the Roastery and Reserve Tasting Room without the roastery, in China.

Specialist coffee shops will experience the biggest sales increase in the Asia Pacific region in the next five years, with China alone contributing nearly 60 percent of that sales increase, according to Euromonitor. Endi