Starbucks Corp today started selling bottled coffee.

Starbucks will sell bottled Frappuccino in its stores in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong as well as selected convenience and grocery stores and other retailers, company chairman Howard Schultz said in Shanghai today.

All the products will be produced by the International Coffee Partnership, a joint venture between Starbucks and Pepsi Co in the United States.

The company is also considering local production in order to cut costs.

The 280ml bottled frappuccino, which comes in its two top-selling flavors, Mocha and Coffee, will be priced at 15 yuan (US$2) to 20 yuan in the three cities.

Seattle-based Starbucks has rapidly added new stores in China as well as broadening its production channels as it forecasts the country will become its biggest overseas market.

“The most important number one growth market in terms of growth and development for Starbucks around the world is China,'' said Schultz.``It's just the beginning of the growth we have planned for China.''

Since the bottled drinks were introduced in North America in the mid 1990s they have generated US$1 billion in sales.

The coffee chain entered China in 1998 with its first store in Beijing. It now has about 600 stores in China including 300 on the mainland with over 10,000 employees. Last year, it opened 80 stores in China.

(Shanghai Daily November 1, 2007)