The US-based company will open up to 500 Starbucks stores here over the next four to five years, making Thailand one of the fastest-growing markets for the coffeehouse chain in terms of new store openings, along with Indonesia.

Starbucks currently operates about 2,000 outlets in the Asia-Pacific region ex-China. Including China, the number is about 3,500.

“With our strong foundation in running Starbucks coffeehouses here for 18 years, Thailand will be a role model for the company in exploring business opportunities in other emerging markets in Asean, especially CLMV [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam]. Being a role model will be conducted in different dimensions, from partner experience, to coffee knowledge, store design, and green store leadership,” said Murray Darling, managing director of Starbucks Coffee (Thailand) Ltd.

He gave the example of Starbucks in Vietnam, for which staff are sent to Thailand for training before opening new outlets so that they know how to attract customers and apply new coffee-making techniques.

“We are proud to [have been] part of the coffee culture in Thailand over the past 18 years. We have continuously delivered our unique Starbucks experience to customers, and today we see they are now seeking new and different experiences, and have greater knowledge about coffee,” Darling said.

He said that almost half of Starbucks’ sales in Thailand were to regular customers, the highest loyalty rate in the world.

“We plan to continuously increase the number of Starbucks coffeehouses in Thailand from currently 262 stores to about 300 [by] the first half of next year. We have already opened 20 new stores in the first half of this year and another 20 new stores will be opened in the second half,” he said.

He added that about 35 new Starbucks outlets were opened in Thailand last year. It serves more than 3.5 million cups of coffee in its Thai stores every month.

After opening its first drive-through outlet three years ago, Starbucks now operates 14 of them in the Thai market.

“Positioning ourselves as more [of a] speciality and high-end coffee shop allows Starbucks to differentiate our propositions to customers. This will allow [has allowed] the company to maintain a growth rate at 20 per cent per annum over the past three to five years, while other players in the market experienced a slowdown,” he said.

“In addition to the new expansion, we will also elevate our existing Starbucks stores with special designs to provide coffee experiences to our customers in special ways.”

Starbucks works with more than a million farmers in 30 countries around the world, including Thailand.

To commemorate its 18th anniversary in Thailand, the company has opened the country’s first Starbucks Reserve Experience Store at Gaysorn Shopping Centre. This flagship store will showcase the company’s key innovations in coffee beans, special brewing methods, and baristas and will offer unique experiences with Starbucks Reserve Coffees, which it claims are the finest and rarest coffees in the world.

“We want to make sure that we meet our customers’ needs,” Darling said.

He added that Starbucks would focus more on quality within the store rather than on the quantity of branches. Each section within the store will fit various personalities of customers.

“Customers are at the centre of the Starbucks experience and the company strives to create meaningful relationships and offer its customers the most convenient ways to connect with the brand.”

He said online applications and social-media networks have been adopted as ways for Starbucks to communicate with individual customers.

“Starbucks is all about a human connection, as mobile and social media become part of customer lifestyles. We want to stay connected with them at both physical stores and on social-media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.”

He said Starbucks Thailand had more than 900,000 “likes” on its Facebook page, and more than 86,000 Instagram account followers. Its mobile app has been downloaded 450,000 times since it launched last year.