Starbucks plans to triple coffee outlets

Starbucks Corp, the world's largest coffee retailer, plans to triple the number of its coffee shops in China during the next four years, an executive said Tuesday. Starbucks plans to operate 1,500 outlets in China by 2015 from a current 470, the company's Asia Pacific president Jinlong Wang said. The company also expects to open 700 coffee shops in South Korea by 2016, up from 370 now, Wang said. "The coffee industry in China has huge potential," Wang told reporters in Singapore. "China has 5,000 years as a tea-drinking country, but we've created a new coffee culture." Starbucks is eyeing fast-growing emerging economies to help boost sales. The company said in July that revenue from its international business rose 20 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier and accounted for 23 percent of overall sales of $2.93 billion.