Starbucks Targets 5,000 Stores in China by 2021

Starbucks is eyeing to double its stores in China over the next five years, targeting 5,000 branches by 2021.

The Seattle-based coffee shop giant is looking to open more than one new store a day in the world's second-largest economy, CNN reported.

"I think if you look at the 45-year history of our company . . . one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told CNN.

Starbucks unveiled its first store in the country in 1999. Seventeen years later, the company believes that China could outstrip the U.S. as its biggest market.

Currently, Starbucks has more than 13,000 stores in the U.S.

"We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was--the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz recalled the company's initial struggles in the country. "So in the early years, we did not make money."

Schultz also told CNN that some critics on Wall Street said that Starbucks "was never going to succeed in China," but the company later proved them wrong.

"If you look five years ago, most of our business, believe it or not, was expats and tourists in China," Schultz said.

To cement its expansion plans, Starbucks has appointed Belinda Wong as the first CEO of its unit in China.

Wong, who was former president of Starbucks China, has been with the company for 16 years.

In 2015, Starbucks had a 74 percent market share in mainland China, according to Euromonitor via CNBC.

"Among the company's closest competitors are McDonald's Corp.'s McCafe and Whitbread PLC's Costa Coffee, both of which had market shares slightly above 9 percent," said CNBC.

Aside from expanding its branch networks, Starbucks is also set to unveil a 30,000sqm store in Shanghai, called the Starbucks Roastery and Reserve Tasting Room. This space is said to be similar to the one in Seattle where customers get tp have a full view of how coffee beans get roasted while sipping their drinks.