Starbucks announces Tokyo Reserve Roastery opening date

Starbucks has announced it will open a Reserve Roastery in Tokyo on 28 February, 2019 in the Nakameguro district. Starbucks’ fifth Reserve Roastery globally, the Tokyo roastery will be designed and built in collaboration with architect and Kuma Lab Founder Kengo Kuma. The company also announced it plans to build 100 new stores in Japan annually over the next three years, a goal that will bring its store count to 1700 across the market. “The strength of our brand in Japan, the momentum in our business, and the spirit of our partners who proudly wear the green apron give me great confidence in our ability to elevate the customer experience and drive growth to continue to build our brand,” Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson says. “We continue to thoughtfully evolve within Japan’s elevated coffee culture to maintain a leadership position and achieve profitable growth for the long-term.” In other news, on 9 November, Starbucks launched its Starbucks Delivers program in partnership with Uber Eats Japan to deliver food and beverages direct to customers. The pilot program began in three stores in Tokyo, two in Shinjuku and one in Roppongi, with plans to scale the program within two years. Starbucks also announced a strategic collaboration with Japanese social media platform Line to innovate across various technologies, including digital payment. The first phase of the partnership will launch in the first half of 2019, connecting Starbucks to Line’s more than 78 million users across Japan. Following the successful rollout of its Mobile Order and Pay program in the United States, Starbucks Japan will begin a pilot of the mobile pre-ordering system in 2019. “Starbucks Japan was built as a performance-driven company, guided through the lens of humanity, from the time of our first store opening in Tokyo in 1996,” Starbucks Japan CEO Takafumi Minaguchi says. “We continue to set the pace for innovation and service for Starbucks globally by focusing on creating genuine human connection in our stores and positively impacting the communities we serve.”