U.S. coffee giant Starbucks has announced plans to open its first coffee shops in Russia later this year. This summer ten coffee shops will start operating in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Bloomberg news agency reported last week. The stores’ franchisee will be Kuwaiti retailer M.H. Alshaya.
“We’ll start opening our first stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg in August, then review expansion plans every six months,� Bloomberg cited Mohammed Alshaya, CEO of M.H. Alshaya, as saying.
At the end of the last year Jim Donald, Starbucks CEO, said the chain would add 2,400 stores worldwide in 2007. The firm’s target is to attain a total of 40,000 stores around the world.
And Russia presents “significant opportunities,� according to Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz. Starbucks has opened its first coffee shops in Brazil and Egypt. By the summer it will enter the Russian and Indian markets, Howard Schultz said to Bloomberg.
At the moment Starbucks operates over 13,000 shops across the world. In the last quarter of 2006 Starbucks Corporation reported a net revenue of $2.4 billion, an increase of 22 percent. Net earnings accounted for $205 million, an increase of 18 percent. The company opened 728 stores during that period.
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