“We have 40 cafés in Romania, 12 in Bulgaria and are about to enter Serbia. There is room for doubling the network in Romania in five years,” says Karol Zuradzki, 31, an executive who has been working for the Polish Amrest group, the holder of the Starbucks franchise in Romania and several other European markets. He runs the operations in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.
Starbucks Romania has opened four cafés this year – including the drive thru in the Bucharest Militari district and the first Reserve Clover café in the Old Town on Lipscani Street.
It has eight more cafés scheduled for opening by yearend and does not plan to close any existing shop, Karol Zuradzki said.
Starbucks has been operating in Romania for more than a decade and arrived as a franchise from the beginning. The current holder of the franchise for Romania is Poland’s Amrest, which operates on several other markets, as well.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)