Branding relationship between hospitality and retail design
New Age of Hospitality & Retail Design?
Starbucks Corp. (Seattle) has announced plans to open its first non-airport store in the Netherlands. The location, a joint venture with Servex BV (Utrecht, Netherlands), a food and beverage concessionaire in Dutch railway stations, will open in spring 2009 at Centraal Station in Amsterdam.
The coffee retailer, who is hoping international expansion will offset difficult conditions in the U.S., said it would focus on railway stations while considering other ways to develop its presence in the Netherlands. "It provides Starbucks with a strong platform to further expand across the Netherlands," said Martin Coles, newly reinstalled president of Starbucks Coffee Intl. More than 1.1 million passengers a day reportedly ride the train in the Netherlands.
The Servex partnership is similar to another deal Starbucks signed in June with SSP Ltd. (Halifax, U.K.) to put Starbucks locations in more than 150 airport and rail stations in France, Germany and Great Britain. Starbucks also holds partnerships with HMSHost Corp. (Bethesda, Md.) and Autogrill SpA (Rozzano, Italy). Starbucks' three locations at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport are operated by HMSHost through a licensing agreement.
