Starbucks Planning $130 Million Investment in New China Roastery

Starbucks has announced plans to invest $130 million for a production facility in China called the Coffee Innovation Park.

It would be Starbucks’ first large-scale production roastery in what is now the company’s second largest retail market, China, where the company plans to have 6,000 stores by 2022.

Also planned to open in 2022, the facility is expected to include a roasting plant, warehouses and a distribution center. As of March 13, construction was expected to begin later this year in the city of Kunshan, northwest of Shanghai. Starbucks has not forecasted any construction delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Despite being in the Chinese market for more than 20 years and having approximately 4,300 stores there, Starbucks has not to this point operated a large-scale production roastery in the country, according to the company.

Outside of its Reserve-brand roasteries — including one about an hour away from the proposed facility — Starbucks currently operates five production roasteries in the United States and one in Amsterdam for all of its European distribution.

Starbucks is hoping to meet the U.S. Green Building Council‘s highest certification for new buildings, LEED Platinum.

“We recently announced a bold multi-decade aspiration to become a planet positive company — a company that gives more than we take from the planet,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in an announcement last week. “China is one of our most important markets and The Coffee Innovation Park is an important, strategic investment that has a positive impact on our carbon footprint and supports our long term sustainability goals.”

The Starbucks announcement follows an industrial roastery groundbreaking from its largest retail competitor in China, Luckin Coffee, that took place in January.