“Our region (Central and Eastern Europe i.e.), despite increased political and fiscal unpredictability, still offers good growth potential and our ambition is to seize this opportunity,” says Mateusz Sielecki, regional director of Starbucks for Romania and Bulgaria.
He works for Polish-held Amrest group, the holder of the Starbucks franchise for Romania and Bulgaria.
The local coffee store market is one of the most fragmented, with Starbucks accounting for 2% of the market, despite being the market leader, according to Eurostat data.
“Coffee market in Romania is experiencing two trends – we observe new single specialty coffee stores popping up and at the same time increased competition in chained coffee.”
Starbucks has had a presence in Romania for about a decade and the franchise went to the Amrest group in 2015. Amrest took over 14 cafés and doubled the network to 33 in two years. It ended last year with 76.5 million lei (EUR16.5 million) revenue.
“The market is getting more competitive, which is good news for Romanian coffee lovers, and we are excited about our future and soon will be introducing some new store concepts. Clover Reserve will be our store with elevated coffee experience.”
Starbucks will also introduce Drive Thru, which will allow customers to either order from their cars or go in store, a similar model to what McDonald’s and KFC are already using on the restaurant segment. The first Starbucks Drive Thru will open in the Militari Shopping Center in Bucharest soon. (EUR1=RON4.6332)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)