The coffee chain’s scaled-down goal to open 30 new stores a year from 2025 comes as petrol station coffee operators Café Amazon and PunThai Coffee plan to significantly ramp up outlet growth in the East Asian country
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The Starbucks Reserve store at the One Bangkok mixed-use development in Thailand | Photo credit: Starbucks
Starbucks Thailand has revised down its outlet growth forecast amid rising competition but remains confident it can open 30 net new stores a year.
Starbucks Thailand began operating in 1998 and currently has 517 stores in the country. In July 2023, Starbucks Thailand Managing Director Nednapa Srisamai outlined an ambitious goal of reaching 800 stores across the southeast Asian country by 2030.
However, if met, the revised target would leave Starbucks 125 outlets short of the original goal.
At the unveiling of Starbucks’ latest Reserve Store in Bangkok on 1 November 2024, Srisamai confirmed the coffee chain will open five more stores before the end of 2024 and said the Thai market continues to ‘offer good potential’ for growth despite increased competition and tightened consumer spend.
Bank of Thailand figures indicate that total household debt in Thailand reached BHT 16.3trn ($483bn) in the second quarter of 2024, amounting to 89.8% of the GDP.
Starbucks is the fourth largest branded coffee chain in Thailand behind Café Amazon, Inthanin and PunThai Coffee – all of which are owned by Thai petrol station operators.
Café Amazon, which operated 4,277 stores at the end of the second quarter, is seeking to open 300 new outlets annually by tapping into PTT Oil and Retail Business’ (PTT OR) petrol station network, while PTG Energy-owned PunThai Coffee said in October 2024 that it would open more than 250 stores by the end of this year ahead of 1,000 new sites in 2025.