NEW YORK—Coffeehouse chain Starbucks Corp. said on Monday that it plans to open 50 stores in India in a joint venture with Indian company Tata Global Beverages.
The world’s biggest coffee chain has established a 50-50 joint venture with Tata, a major Indian conglomerate, aiming to introduce the Western coffee and latte culture on a population, which traditionally drinks tea.
The new coffeehouses will bear the name of “Starbucks Coffee: A Tata Alliance.” The first two stores will open in Mumbai and Delhi—India’s two largest cities—later this year. It aims to have 50 stores one year from now.
“It opens up exciting business opportunities and new formats for Tata Global Beverages. Starbucks brings unique retail expertise as well as a shared sense of business values,” said R.K. Krishnakumar, vice chairman of Tata’s beverage arm, on Monday.
According to Starbucks, it will bring “… high quality arabica coffee, handcrafted beverages, locally relevant food, and legendary service,” said John Culver, head of Starbucks’s Asian operations.
Both companies will fund the joint venture with investments of 4 billion rupees ($80 million) apiece.
Emerging markets have been a growth engine for Starbucks. Last week, Starbucks’s chief financial officer said on a conference call that the company’s revenues in the Asia-Pacific increased by 38 percent last quarter.
