Starbucks is all set to open a 30,000 square feet of coffee roasting and brewing cafe in China, the company's fastest-growing market, as the pace of worldwide sales stalls.
The store opens on Wednesday in Shanghai, where customers can watch beans being roasted, sample high-end brews and use a Starbucks augmented reality digital app to interact with the store.
The cafe features Starbucks' longest coffee bar in the world, a two-story copper coffee roasting cask and a 3-D printed tea bar. The cask is covered with 1,000 hand-carved traditonal Chinese chops, or stamps, that tell the story of Starbucks.
Mirroring the signature copper cask at the inaugural Reserve Roastery in Seattle, at entry, customers will be greeted by the stunning sight of a two-story, 40-ton copper cask adorned with more than 1,000 traditional Chinese chops, or stamps, hand-engraved to narrate the story of Starbucks and our Reserve coffee.
Designed by Starbucks, and powered by Alibaba, the Shanghai Roastery will become the first Starbucks location, and the first-of-its kind in China, to seamlessly integrate a real-time, in-store and online customer experience.
Starbucks has said it plans other Roastery cafes in New York, Tokyo and Italy.
Starbucks has had a presence in China for more than 18 years, with more than 3,000 stores across 136 cities.
Revenue from the Asia-Pacific region accounted for almost 15 percent of Starbucks' revenue for the fiscal year ended in October. That's up from 5.5 percent five years earlier.
