Chinese giant Luckin Coffee has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kuwait food company Americana, the largest food provider in the region, to establish a joint venture for a new retail coffee business in the Middle East and India.
It is the Xiamen-based coffee chain’s first move overseas and will rival huge chains already in the market, including US-based Starbucks, which has 2,600 outlets throughout the Middle East.
“This collaboration represents Luckin Coffee’s first step toward bringing its leading products from China to the world. We look forward to further expanding the freshly brewed coffee market internationally as we realise the incredible growth opportunities available to us through our innovative business model,” said Luckin Coffee’s founder and CEO, Jenny Qian Zhiya.
Luckin Coffee’s technology-driven new retail model provides coffee and other products of high quality, high affordability, and high convenience to its customers. Americana Group, meanwhile, has served as a pioneer of restaurant operations since the 1960s.
Americana Group CEO Kesri Kapur, added: “We have worked with many leading and revolutionary food and beverage brands over our history and believe that Luckin Coffee’s superior products, experience and services will deliver success in these regions.”
Founded in 2017, Luckin Coffee operates over 3,000 stores across 40 cities in China. The company plans to open more than 4,500 stores by the end of 2019, which would make it China’s largest coffee chain.
Americana has been operating for 55 years and boasts 1,900 restaurants in 13 markets and 25 food production sites across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt.
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