Starbucks Plans Juice Bars Here, More Drive-Throughs Overseas

Busy times at Starbucks Corp. The world’s largest coffee retailer will open a chain of juice bars in the United States beginning next year and add 200 drive-through Starbucks stores across the United Kingdom.

The still-to-be-named juice outlets will be incorporated with Evolution Fresh, a San Bernadino, Calif., fruit and vegetable juice maker that Starbucks bought in November for $30 million. Evolution Fresh is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Starbucks.

Although no official announcement has been made by Starbucks, Reuters reports that the first Starbucks juice bar will open on the West Coast in mid-2012.

On Dec. 1, the Seattle chain announced plans to add 200 more drive-through stores across the United Kingdom over the next five years. Starbucks already operates nine drive-through stores and more than 700 conventional U.K. outlets.

Starbucks, which has more than 6,000 international locations, said earlier this year that it plans to more than triple its store count in mainland China to 1,500 locations by 2015.