Currently, the US coffee chain runs 87 outletsacross seven cities and provinces nationwide with 50 in HCM City and 24 inHanoi and 1,000 employees, including 200 coffee masters.
“So, as you can see, there’s plenty ofopportunities to continue growing in the market,” CEO of Starbucks Vietnam,Patricia Marques told reporters in Hanoi on January 6.
According to the CEO, Starbucks will continue toopen more stores, in addition to places that the chain has visited to betterserve customers in their neighbourhoods.
Most recently, the US chain opened a new storein Ho An on December 9. It is also targeting new opportunities in Binh Duongand Binh Dinh provinces for this year’s plan.
A recent report of the fast-moving consumergoods (FMCG) in the Asian region announced by Kantar World Panel showed Vietnam’sbeverage industry has recovered after two years of being affected by theCOVID-19 pandemic. The third quarter of 2022 recorded an average growth rate of5.2%, only 0.4% lower than the average growth rate of the whole of Asia.
“The beverage sector will bounce back from thelockdown in Vietnam and seems to thrive again after two years of decline,” the Kantarreport said.
Despite being a giant in the internationalmarkets, Starbucks must compete with rising local brands.
Vietnam’s tea and coffee market is dominated bylocal franchise brands, including Highlands Coffee (573 stores), The CoffeeHouse (154) and Phuc Long (118), according to Statista data as of December2022.
According to India-based market research companyMordor Intelligence, increasing busy lifestyle and longer working hours islikely to strengthen the consumption of coffee. Vietnam’s coffee market isprojected to witness a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.07% during 2022-2027.
To increase its competition in the “world coffeecapital”, besides continuing expansion, Starbucks Vietnam CEO said the chainwill strive to optimise costs by improving management capacity, human resourcecapacity and operational efficiency at each store.
In addition, to celebrate its 10-year journey inVietnam, customers in Vietnam will have a chance to enjoy Starbucks Vietnam DaLat coffee in September 2023./.