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.

Or it was. Mr Schultz swooped into Milan during Fashion Week to announce that Starbucks would open its first coffee shop in Italy early next year, in Milan. Given that Starbucks is opening 500 stores a year in China, the Milan venture might seem like a nice little ornament. But for Mr Schultz, coming to Ita…