Starbucks Opens in Salling Department Store
Holme, Danmark 5th of August 2013 –Thursday the 8th of August, Starbucks Coffee Company (Nasdaq: SBUX) and Salling, a Dansk Supermarked department store, opens the doors of the first Starbucks in Jutland. The opening of this Starbucks store, located in the city centre of Aarhus, marks the first of many planned store openings in collaboration with Dansk Supermarked. Before the end of the year there are plans to open five additional new stores in Ålborg (Salling), Kolding (Bilka), Hundige (Bilka), Næstveld (Bilka) and Vejle (Bilka).
With the opening in Salling, customers can now treat themselves to a perfectly handcrafted beverage, such as the popular Lattes or Starbucks Frappuccino®, in an inviting atmosphere while taking a break from shopping or simply to meet with friends. The store's baristas received thorough training from Starbucks in London, and are looking forward to sharing the renowned Starbucks Experience with Salling shoppers.The store embodies the Starbucks third place experience whilst remaining within the local character.
As part of Starbucks commitment to create and share locally relevant design and experiences, the designers drew inspiration from the local Scandinavian heritage and the fact that people in Aarhus love being outdoors. The store was designed to bring in a lot of natural light and capture the feeling of being on an outdoor patio by featuring terracotta tiles, a garden trellis and oak walls. The store also shares a coffee story through art featuring world's coffee growing regions on the back wall. This design fits within the overall bright interior of Salling and will convey the spirit of the outdoor lifestyle so popular with locals.
"The Danish market is of great importance to Starbucks, as Denmark is the fourth biggest coffee consuming country in the world," says Starbucks director of licensed stores EMEA, Arjan Oudejans. He continues: "In Salling we have found a partner that provides the same high standards of quality, and as the Danes have a great love of coffee, we are eager to provide more opportunities for them to visit and connect with Starbucks. This also builds on our philosophy to be where our customers expect us to be."
Henrik Libak, director of Salling is equally excited about the opening of the store in Aarhus: "It's a great gift for us to be able to offer our customers The Starbucks Experience. Starbucks is known and loved all over the world for their high quality coffee and first-class service. We could not have wished for anything better for our customers. Our employees have been at Starbucks abroad to be trained in the noble art of coffee brewing. We all worked really hard to get here, and can't wait to show our customers what we can do."
Starbucks opened its first stores in Denmark at the Copenhagen Airport in 2007, followed by the introduction of the ready-to-drink coffee beverages such as Starbucks Discoveries®, Starbucks Doubleshot™ and Starbucks Bottled Frappuccino® in 2011. The opening of the first continental European Starbucks hypermarket store, located in Bilka OneStop in the Fields mall in Copenhagen marked the start of Starbucks and Dansk Supermaked partnership. There are currently four Starbucks stores in Denmark; three are located in Copenhagen Airport and one in the Bilka One Stop in Copenhagen.
