The Center for Hospitality Research
AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Starbucks Entry into China
Starbucks Coffee International, a subsidiary of Starbucks Coffee Company has recently celebrated its first step into Southern China opening a new store in the country, the first one in Shenzhen. The store is owned by Coffee Concepts, a joint venture between Starbucks and Hong Kong’s Maxim group, who together have already opened 32 Starbucks stores in Hong Kong between 2000 and 2002.1 At the opening Pedro Man, president of Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific Ltd., the Asian division of Starbucks Coffee International said: "As we celebrate the opening of our first store in Southern China today, we mark yet another key milestone in the history and tradition of …show more content…

He finally convinced them to test the idea in a new downtown Seattle store in 1984. The test was a great success, but the owners decided not to expand the concept. This disagreement caused Schultz to leave the company in 1985 and start his own coffee-bar company named Il Giornale.10 Later that year, Schultz met up with Dave Olsen, who had run a successful coffee house in Seattle called Café Allegro. Café Allegro was a place where students and professors would hang out, studying philosophy or debating U.S foreign policy while drinking cappuccinos. Café Allegro was more the prototype of the European café tradition than the Italian stand-up espresso bars that Howard Schultz had seen in Milan, Italy. Café Allegro was what Starbucks later became, a gathering place in the neighborhood.11 The two shared a passion for coffee and shared views on how to run a business. Howard strengths were communicating the vision, inspiring investors, raising money and planning for future growth. Dave had a deeper understanding about how to operate a retail café, hire and train baristas and ensuring the best quality of coffee. It never occurred to Howard and Dave to become competitors, instead they were inspired by the idea of joining forces.12 They opened up the first Il Giornale in April 1986, and were determined to have it feel like a genuine Italian-style coffee bar. They had to eventually adapt some of their concepts to fit their customers, such as varying the music from only opera