Starbucks launches new ready-to-drink coffee beverage in Japan and Taiwan

27/09/05 Starbucks Coffee Company has launched its first ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee beverage outside of North America in Asia. Starbucks Discoveries(TM) coffee drink is a fresh, ready-to-drink chilled cup coffee featuring the high-quality coffee customers expect from Starbucks. Starbucks Discoveries will initially be offered in two flavors, Seattle (latte) and Milano (espresso), and is available today in the refrigerated case of convenience stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area and nationally in select convenience stores in Taiwan on September 28, 2005.

In developing this new RTD coffee beverage, Starbucks conducted research and found that Asian consumers perceived chilled cup coffee as the highest quality of all RTD coffee beverages. Starbucks Discoveries is made fresh and is kept refrigerated, with a short, 14-day shelf life, one of the shortest on the market today. Additionally, during consumer research most Starbucks customers in Asia believed that chilled cup coffee was the best way for Starbucks to enter the market outside of their retail stores.

The launch of Starbucks Discoveries represents Starbucks first entry into the chilled cup coffee segment anywhere in the world. The Company took more than a year to create a superpremium ready-to-drink coffee designed to appeal to the local taste preferences in Asia, using the same high-quality coffee found in all Starbucks retail stores and coffee-based products worldwide.

The name Starbucks Discoveries was inspired by Starbucks coffee buyers who travel the world looking for the highest quality arabica coffee available. Starbucks Discoveries(TM) Seattle (latte) is named after the birthplace of Starbucks; Starbucks Discoveries(TM) Milano (espresso) is named for the Italian city, honoring the development of the first espresso maker.

Starbucks has a proven track record of creating successful coffee-related products. Through a joint venture with the Pepsi-Cola Company, in 1996 the Company introduced bottled Starbucks Frappuccino(R) coffee drinks and later Starbucks DoubleShot(R) espresso drink. To date, these Starbucks coffee innovations remain the No. 1 products in their respective segments of the ready-to-drink coffee category in the United States. Consumer products, such as these, and the new Starbucks Discoveries, broaden the brand's reach to customers who may not have visited a Starbucks retail store.

As announced earlier in May 2005, Starbucks entered into an agreement in Japan with Suntory Ltd., one of the leading Japanese producers and distributors of food and beverages, for the manufacture and distribution of Starbucks Discoveries coffee drink. Starbucks Coffee Japan, Ltd., which has operated Starbucks stores in Japan since 1996, will provide ongoing consulting support including local brand and marketing expertise for the Japanese market. In Taiwan, Starbucks entered into a distribution agreement with President Starbucks Coffee Taiwan Limited, the Company's joint venture partner in Taiwan, for marketing and distribution of the new product. Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the country, will manufacture the product for Taiwan.