Rome - Coffee shop multinational Starbucks will open its first store in Italy, the country that provided the inspiration for the US company's business model more than three decades ago, its boss has announced.
Starbucks started out as a coffee roaster in Seattle. Its current chief executive and president Howard Schulz got the idea to expand it into a global coffee shop chain after a 1983 visit to Italy, where coffee bars are on every street corner.
“We are now ready to invest millions of dollars in your country. We want to create jobs,” Schulz told an audience in Milan, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Monday.
Starbucks' first Italian store should open in Milan in late 2016 or early 2017, following a franchising deal with Italian shopping centres entrepreneur Antonio Percassi, Corriere della Sera added.
Schulz said he was aware of the challenge of meeting demanding local tastes. Italians tend to like their coffee in strong, small espresso cups, rather than the larger, weaker drinks popular in the US.
“We are coming to the land of coffee with humility and respect. Having had worldwide success does not allow us to take it for granted that we will be able to repeat ourselves in Italy,” the businessman said.
Starbucks currently has more than 22 500 stores in almost 70 countries, according to information published on its website.
ANA-DPA