With humility, Starbucks to enter Italian market, where standards are high

Milan

STANDING in the art-soaked splendour of a Milanese parlour as an array of A-list Italian business leaders listened intently, Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, recited a remarkable statistic: Each week, roughly 90 million people pass through a Starbucks somewhere on earth.

Equally remarkable, given that Starbucks operates in 70 countries, is this: Not one of those people is in Italy, a country where coffee culture is central to daily life, and that represents something of a coffee holy grail to Mr Schultz. Italy, land of the perfect espresso and the exquisitely frothy cappuccino, is a Starbucks-free nation.