For more than fifty years, Starbucks has been dedicated to nurturing the limitless possibilities of human connection over coffee. Our approach has helped Starbucks grow from one tiny store along a cobblestone street in Seattle to more than 37,000 stores operating in 86 markets today.

These days, Starbucks has over 100 million customer occasions each week. To do that, we have made prudent investments to support our growth. We are proud our early investments in digital innovation have helped us provide customers with new ways enjoy novel Starbucks experiences around the globe. In a recent 90-day period, 75 million Starbucks Rewards customers actively engaged with the brand digitally across the globe, including 20 million in China.

Starbucks is investing for the long-term in China, and by 2025, Starbucks will have expanded to have 9,000 stores in that market. To support our growth, we are revamping our approach to digital innovation by investing in our infrastructure. As first announced in 2022, Starbucks is establishing an Innovation and Tech Center (SITC) in Shenzhen. Today, we announced the center will open this September, and will accelerate the digitization of Starbucks retail operations and omni-channel business in China by leveraging the power of data analytics, modeling and decision-making to drive operational excellence and create new experiences centered around people and coffee.

As Starbucks retail innovation hub in China, the SITC will provide an exciting platform for brewing human-centric innovations that reimagine Starbucks retail landscape and customer experience in China. It will focus on:

• Customers – Creating exceptional new in-store and omni-channel customer experiences while elevating personalized engagement and human connection to meet the evolving needs of discerning Chinese customers.
• Partners – Driving simplification and automation of store operations, empowering partners to pursue their passion for coffee craft and customer connection.
• Coffee – Innovating novel coffee experiences at speed via data capabilities and commercialization agility, bringing customers delightful coffee beverages and food offerings.
• Productivity – Digitalizing all dimensions of its business, from supply chain and store operations to store development, driving operational excellence and unlocking additional efficiencies as it scales in the market.
• Sustainability – Reducing environmental footprint through wide adoption of technology solutions across the coffee value chain.

This marks just the latest of Starbucks investments to fuel its long-term growth in China and be at the forefront of that market’s dynamic and fast evolving retail landscape. Come this fall, the company will be opening the Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Park, another landmark investment that will feature a smart integrated distribution center and other infrastructure designed to unleash our growth in China, positioning us to open multiple stores per day as we track towards our 2025 goal.