Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson pictured in front of an image of the chain's first store at Pike Place Market, which opened in 1971

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The new store joins Starbucks’ sizeable 3,600+ store portfolio in China, which is currently growing a rate of one new store every 15 hours. Commenting on the landmark, Starbucks President and CEO, Kevin Johnson, praised the company’s coffee leadership around the world.

“The opening of Starbucks 30,000th store is a proud moment for all Starbucks partners… Over the past 48 years we have worked to build a different kind of company based on a mission grounded in the human experience, the world’s finest coffees, and a constant of pursuit of doing good. Starbucks now serves more than 100 million customer occasions across 78 markets around the world,” he added.

The first Starbucks store opened in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1971. By 1989 the coffee chain had grown to 55 stores and has opened an average of 19 stores per week since to reach 30,000 sites in 2019. 

China is a key growth market for Starbucks as it seeks to capitalise on a burgeoning middle class and increased appetite for aspirational hospitality brands in the East-Asian nation. In May 2018 Starbucks announced plans to build a further 3,000 new stores in mainland China by 2022 as it vies with international and local competitors, such as Luckin’ Coffee, which has rapidly opened nearly 2,000 stores since debuting in early 2018.

In 2017, Starbucks opened a prestigious Reserve Roastery in Shangai, which now forms part of a global network of five such concepts across, Seattle, New York, Milan and Tokyo. The sixth Reserve Roastery is due open in Chicago in late 2019.

In further developments at the Seattle-based coffee chain, Starbucks has also committed $100m investment in in Valor Siren Ventures I, a company which will serve as a growth driver for the next generation of food retail start-up technology companies.

“We believe that innovative ideas are fuel for the future, and we continue to build on this heritage inside our company across beverage, experiential retail, and our digital flywheel,” said Johnson. “At the same time, and with an eye toward accelerating our innovation agenda, we are inspired by, and want to support the creative, entrepreneurial businesses of tomorrow with whom we may explore commercial relationships down the road, he added.”

The fund will seek to raise an additional $300 million from strategic partners and institutional investors in the coming months.
 

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