Starbucks to open over 3,000 new cafes

STARBUCKS Corp plans to open more than 3,000 new shops in the Americas in the next five years, an increase of more than 20 percent, as it pushes a growth strategy that relies on tea and juice as much as coffee, the world's largest coffee chain said yesterday.

The company is done with acquisitions for now, after a spate of deals that added juice seller Evolution Fresh and Bay Bread LLC's La Boulange Bakery for US$30 million and US$100 million, respectively. The company has also agreed to buy tea store chain Teavana Holdings Inc for US$620 million.

"We're pretty full up at this time in terms of our resources and capabilities," Chief Executive Howard Schultz said at Starbucks' investor conference in New York. "At this moment in time we have enough to handle."

Food long has been a weak link at Starbucks, which plans to sell La Boulange pastries and other goodies at 2,500 of its company-run US shops by the end of 2013.

We recommend:
China's first rail to 'sea of death' starts operation	Sales of Samsung's Galaxy Note 2 tops 5mmark	Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed rail to open
10th China Int'l Automobile Exhibition concludes	Harbin-Dalian high-speed railway starts operation	New wave of communication tools
Alibaba's transaction volume in 2012 hits 1 trln yuan	China's savings rate world's highest	Shanghai Center Tower to rise over 400m