PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. coffee chain Starbucks Corp. will open its first cafe in Paris on Friday, and said it could expand to up to 10 branches in France by year-end.
If successful, Starbucks could then move to the country that invented short, strong espresso coffee, Italy, although this would not be until at least next year, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday.
Schultz, who joined the company 10 years after it was founded in 1971, said he had been inspired by the French cafes and the Italian coffee bars before importing the concept of espresso bars to the company’s U.S. hometown Seattle.