Starbucks China opened new Coffee Innovation Park to strengthen supply chain

Starbucks on Tuesday opened its China Coffee Innovation Park in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, its largest investment in manufacturing and distribution in the country, to further elevate its supply chain capacity.

The park, has completed the scaled vertical integration "from bean-to-cup" across one market – the first for the company globally. It is the largest investment in any Starbucks coffee manufacturing and distribution center outside the United States at 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million).

The facility is designed to be Starbucks "most energy efficient and sustainable coffee manufacturing and distribution center" in the world, said the company.

"As one of the largest consumer markets in the world, China presents tremendous opportunities for Starbucks, " said Laxman Narasimhan, CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company. "The Coffee Innovation Park highlights Starbucks foresight in elevating the supply chain through digitalization and advancing our sustainability agenda, enhancing our unique competitive advantage as we accelerate our global growth."

The CEO said:" As Starbucks largest and fastest-growing international market, we will continue to deepen our investment and reinforce our unwavering long-term commitment to the China market."

An hour from Shanghai, the 80,000-square-meter park imports high-quality Arabica green beans for roasting, packaging, storage, and distribution.

With capacity to supply all Starbucks coffee stores in China as the company continues to grow, the plant will use advanced eco-friendly technologies to blend and roast high quality Arabica green beans sourced from more than 30 countries and regions around the world, including China, said Starbucks.

The company currently has a network of more than 6,500 stores across more than 250 Chinese cities. It continues to ramp up its commitment in China as it strives towards its ambition to operate 9,000 stores across 300 Chinese cities by 2025 and invest over $450 million.