The partnership forms part of a plan to elevate brand awareness of Lavazza in China, where it is seeking to rapidly scale its 100-store coffee shop network within the next few years
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Lavazza currently operates more than 100 premium coffee shops across 11 Chinese cities | Photo credit: Lavazza
Italian coffee roaster Lavazza has been named Prestige Sponsor of the Rolex Shanghai Masters, the only event on the ATP Masters tour to be held in east Asia.
The agreement covers the next three iterations of the tournament, with the 2023 event taking place from 4-15 October at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena.
Lavazza, which also sponsors Wimbledon, the US Open and the French Open tennis tournaments, will be the only coffee brand present at the event.
Alongside extending Lavazza’s long-standing affiliation with tennis, the agreement also advances brand awareness of the Italian coffee roaster in its key Chinese growth market.
In May 2023, three years after kickstarting its Lavazza partnership with a debut flagship store in Shanghai, Yum China said the premium coffee shop network was ‘thriving in China’.
Yum China currently operates more than 100 Lavazza coffee shops across 11 Chinese cities. The two organisations have an ambitious goal of operating 1,000 Lavazza stores across the country by 2025.
At an Investor Day in Xi’an on 14 September 2023, the quick-service restaurant group announced it will be upgrading its Lavazza store design and investing in brand building as part of a multi-pillar strategy to grow the brand in China.