Nestle's Nespresso Debuts in China with Two Stores

摘要：昨天，雀巢宣布将旗下顶级咖啡品牌奈斯派索（NESPRESSO）正式进入中国内地市场，并在北京开设亚洲首家奈斯派索咖啡吧。“中国内地除北京外，还将在成都同时开设一家精品店。”雀巢大中华区总裁兼北京奈斯派索咖啡有限公司董事长穆立表示，在今年年底和明年年初，奈斯派索还将在北京和上海开设两家精品店。

Nestle Nespresso SA, the premium coffee-capsule business of Swiss food giant Nestle Group , has opened its first two stores in China as part of planned global expansion, its China spokeswoman said.

Nespresso opened the stores in Beijing and the southwestern city of Chengdu on Wednesday, Nancy He said, adding that it planned to set up an outlet in Shanghai and add another one in Beijing this year.

Nespresso Chief Executive Gerhard Berssenbruegge told Reuters in an interview last month the company may bring its sales targets forward by one year as turnover surges and it expands into fast-growing emerging markets.

Berssenbruegge said Nespresso's business model applied worldwide and that the group had a "master plan" to tap fast-growing markets for coffee capsules such as North America and selected developing countries.

In a statement emailed to Reuters on Thursday, Nespresso said the company planned to boost the number of its stores worldwide to 120 by the end of this year from 79 in 2006.

Nestle Group has been selling coffee through retailers in China for 20 years. It also sells tea beverages, energy drinks and dairy products in the world's fourth-largest economy.

China's coffee consumption could grow to 250,000 to 300,000 tonnes per year within 10 to 15 years as disposable incomes in the world's most populous nation rise, said Andrea Illy, chairman of one of Italy's top three roasters, illycaffe, earlier this month.

That would compare with industry estimates of 2006 demand at 45,000 tonnes in the traditionally tea drinking society.