Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks Rock Asia

The two chains have capitalized on a coffee explosion in South Korea, while looking ahead to China.

April 02, 2014

SEOUL – Another Saturday night and the most hopping joint isn’t a night club, but a Dunkin’ Donuts store, the Boston Globe reports. While tea has long been the hot beverage of choice here in South Korea and other parts of Asia, coffee has seen a surge of interest lately. Currently, South Korea has more than 900 Dunkin’ Donuts locations, with Starbucks close behind, while both companies are making plans for a Chinese invasion.

In South Korea, a 100 schools train baristas. Coffeehouses employ valets to park cars, and some even offer home delivery. “It’s more than just coffee’s a big deal, or people are into coffee. It is a phenomenon…. It’s a freaking phenomenon,” said Stan Frankenthaler, Dunkin’s executive chef and vice president of production innovation. “It’s more intense than New York by far — the competitiveness, the saturation. You think you’re going to see a lot of coffee shops on one block, and there’s four times more than you even think. It’s incredible.”

In this country, an American visitor would find a very different Dunkin’ Donuts experience, with salad on the menu and paper cups for the hot brew. Customers grab their own doughnuts, which include a black-rice donut, glutinous rice stick and a jalapeno sausage pie doughnut. Bubble tea latte is served alongside the popular Americano.

Even more strange, the crowds don’t start flocking to Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts locations until the afternoons, with increased numbers streaming in throughout the evenings. Mornings, on the other hand, are practically devoid of customers. Larger footprints invite customers to linger and mingle with friends.

“Since 2010, the coffee boom of shops has just exploded even more beyond our wildest dreams,” said Sara Larcombe, Dunkin’ Donuts senior director of international marketing. “Dunkin’, by being in the market early, helped build that appetite and awareness of how coffee would be used in everyday life in the Korean market.”

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