Starbucks targets Viennese market

Starbucks: Into the lion's den of European coffee culture

Starbucks, the US cafe chain, has announced plans for an assault on the heartland of European coffee culture, Vienna.

The group said it would open 12 outlets in the Austrian capital from December, with the aim of offering a more youthful, contemporary alternative to Vienna's traditional coffee houses.

"Austria is at the heart of European coffee culture and coming here is a very important event," said Starbucks president Peter Maslen.

Vienna is particularly renowned for its coffee houses, some of which claim to have witnessed such events as performances by Mozart, chess matches between Lenin and Trotsky and analyst-patient meetings between Freud and Mahler.

'More comfortable'

More prosaically, some customers in the past were said to have had their post and laundry delivered to their favourite cafe.

Starbucks hopes its customers will feel similarly at home.

"We talk about Starbucks as the third place between home and work," Mr Maslen said.

"We bring stuffed chairs and, frankly, in some places it's a more comfortable living room than you might have at home."

Complementary

Viennese traditionalists are optimistic that the arrival of Starbucks will not send traditional coffee culture into decline.

Kurt Falkner, founder member of the Austrian Coffee Culture Society, said he believed Starbucks would complement rather than replace existing coffee houses.

"What this will do is maintain the habit of drinking coffee and bring young people back to it," he said.

With annual consumption of 215 litres a head, Austrians are among Europe's biggest coffee drinkers.

Anti-globalisation focus

Starbucks serves about 15 million customers a week from 4,300 outlets in 23 countries.

And it has said it aims to open 650 stores in continental Europe by the end of 2003 and sees potential for more than 20,000 Starbucks cafes worldwide.

The company reported net profit of $95m (£68m) for 2000 on sales of $2.2bn.

But while popular with customers, the company has in recent years also become a target of cultural campaigners and anti-globalisation protesters.