Starbucks plans to expand its business in Asia by opening new stores in China, Thailand, India and Myanmar.
In China, the global coffee retailer intends to open nearly 650 stores by 2015, making its store count to 1,500.
Starbucks has opened its first Asian community store in the Langsuan neighborhood of Bangkok, Thailand and announced its plans to double its stores to 320 in the country within the next five years, reported bangkokpost.com.
The Thailand community store will be the company's fourth one internationally.
The concept of this store is to direct 10% of sales from Starbucks hand-crafted beverages to the farming communities of Northern Thailand.
Commenting on the expansion plans in Thailand, Starbucks chairman, president, and CEO Howard Schultz said that the company wants to grow its market by doubling store count over the next five years.
"The community store in Langsuan signifies our ongoing commitment to give back to communities, and more specifically, to support and sustain local coffee and farming communities in Northern Thailand," Schultz added.
Starbucks also plans to foray into Myanmar in the next two years and open more outlets in India.
