Report: Starbucks sees major growth in China

New York City Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz said that China will eventually overtake Japan as its biggest market outside of North American, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In an interview with the newspaper, Schultz said the chain is planning to open "thousands of stores" in China over time.

Starbucks currently has 376 stores on the China mainland, compared with 878 in Japan. Schultz said the company’s growth in China is being carefully plotted out.

“Cracking the code in China for any company is not an easy task -- there will be a number of winners and lots of losers of people who go there and rush to judgment and don't succeed," Schultz said. "The thing I am most interested in when I go to China is whether or not local Chinese are buying Starbucks coffee and sitting in our stores."

The Starbucks chief is looking at the fast-growing Indian and Vietnamese markets, where it doesn't yet have any stores.

“Asia clearly represents the most significant growth opportunity on a go-forward basis," Schultz said in the interview.