Luckin Coffee announced recently that by the end of April this year, it will be stationed in 18 large and medium-sized cities such as Shijiazhuang, Shenyang, Guiyang and Zhuhai. With 22 cities opened last year, the number of cities stationed in the country will reach 40 .
At the beginning of January, Luckin Coffee announced its three objectives for this year, adding 2,500 new stores in the year, totaling more than 4,500 by the end of the year, making it the largest chain coffee brand in China in terms of number of stores and cup sales. At present, Luckin Coffee has been opened in Changzhou, Foshan and Yangzhou. By the end of April, it will be stationed in 15 large and medium-sized cities, such as Nantong, Wenzhou, Jiaxing, Shenyang, Shaoxing, Kunming, Hefei, Quanzhou, Zhuhai, Guiyang, Nanchang, Zhenjiang, Zhongshan, Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang. These cities are in the forefront of the country in terms of population size and consumption capacity, especially in the area of coffee culture popularization.
It is worth mentioning that Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks, responded positively to the competition in the Chinese market for the first time in a recent interview with media. “I don't think that's possible," Kevin Johnson said of the possibility of Luckin Coffee overtaking Starbucks by the end of 2019. Kevin Johnson mentioned that in the fourth quarter of 2018, the number of Starbucks stores in China rose by 18%, entering 10 new cities in China, each with a larger size and population than Los Angeles. Kevin Johnson says that many Luckin stores are "small stores" and cannot be compared with the full range of services offered by Starbucks.
