The KFC and K Coffee operator has high hopes for its Lavazza store network, which has seen slower-than-expected growth in China’s highly competitive branded cofee shop market
Lavazza Group CEO Antonio Baravalle (left) with Maggie Chen (right) | Photo credit: Antonio Baravalle/LinkedIn
Quick-service restaurant group Yum China has appointed new leadership for its Lavazza joint venture, which operates dozens of branded coffee shops and distributes Lavazza packaged coffee in China.
Maggie Chen joined Yum China in 2015 as Director of Marketing for KFC and has served as Yum China’s Chief Customer Officer since January 2024. She succeeds Adrian Ding as General Manager of the Lavazza joint venture following Ding’s appointment as Yum China Chief Financial Officer in March 2025.
Posting on LinkedIn, Lavazza Group CEO Antonio Baravalle said Chen will lead the premium Italian coffee group’s expansion in China, which he described as a dynamic market with enormous potential.
“The Chinese market represents a strategic step in the evolution of our group as a global coffee leader. The joint venture we created with Yum China is a key pillar of our international growth strategy, and today it gains new momentum with the arrival of Maggie Chen as General Manager. With her experience and the inventiveness of our local team, we are ready to continue our expansion, promote the excellence of authentic Italian espresso, and strengthen the Lavazza brand as a symbol of quality and innovation,” Baravalle wrote.
Yum China opened a Lavazza flagship store in Shanghai’s upmarket Jing’an district in April 2020. The joint venture partnership set an ambitious goal to reach 1,000 Lavazza branded coffee shops in China by 2025 but has since opened just 112 outlets.
Speaking to the BBC in December 2024, Lavazza Group Chairman Giuseppe Lavazza said the partnership was now seeking to reach 1,000 coffee shops by 2028.
In February 2025, Yum China said it had achieved ‘meaningfully improved store economics’ across its premium Lavazza coffee shop network and was sharpening its focus on Lavazza’s ‘dual growth engines’, including packaged retail coffee sales and wholesale growth.
While the Lavazza joint venture has delivered slower-than-expected growth, Yum China has found a successful formula for its K COFFEE brand, which was credited as a standout growth driver for the business last year.
Shanghai-based Yum China reached 700 KCOFFEE locations across China in December 2024, with a store network comprising stand-alone outlets and ‘side-by-side’ concession coffee shops adjacent to KFC stores. Yum China plans to scale the café concept to 1,300 locations by the end of 2025.
