Starbucks has received “a lot of interest” in the sale of a stake in its China business as the US coffee chain explores a partnership with an outside investor to restore growth there, its chief executive has said.
Brian Niccol said in an interview with the Financial Times that Starbucks was exploring the sale of a minority stake in its China unit, which operated 7,758 stores as of the end of March.
“The good news is we’ve got a lot of interest — a lot of interest,” he said on Tuesday. “People see the value of the Starbucks brand. They see the coffee category is growing. I think they’d love to be partnering up with us in figuring out how we take this from 8,000 to 20,000 [stores].”