Luckin Coffee is raging in the competition againts Starbucks (Image via: TechNode)

China's Luckin Coffee to Fight Starbucks in Wider Market

On Monday, the China’s Luckin Coffee signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing with The Americana Group from Kuwait. The move was made to settle a partnership about expanding Luckin Coffee to Middle East and India. The Americana Group is a solid player in food brands competition in Middle East. They own some of the biggest franchises, including KFC, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Krispy Kreme, and Costa Coffee. As for the total number, they have their hands around 1,800 restaurants and 29 food production sites in the Middle East. Luckin Coffee itself has been hard in their effort to dethrone Starbucks and ready to expand. Luckin coffee raised $645 million in a U.S. initial public offering on May 2019. So this time both company are going to establish a joint venture as their power.

The CEO of Americana Groups, Kasri Kapur, said that Middle East and India are promising areas for their business. Meanwhile, Jenny Qian Zhiya, CEO of Luckin Coffee, revealed a determination to the company’s products from China to the world. The collaboration is just the first step. Currently, they have 3,000 stores in 40 Chinese cities. Then they plan to increase the number up to 4,500 by the end of this year. There will be pressures coming towards Starbucks. Starbucks already lost money in UK, according to Martin Brok, president of Starbucks' operations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/22/business/luckin-coffee-americana-middle-east-deal/index.html