Coffee shop chain Starbucks would come to Bulgaria and open its first shops there in 2008, Dnevnik daily said.

This was announcement by the Starbucks Coffee Company, which was already recruiting its Bulgarian team. The information was confirmed by DB Interconsult – Starbucks' current consultant company in Bulgaria.

Starbucks would come to Bulgaria through Greek Marinopoulos, the announcement said. Marinopoulos was the company which introduced French retailer Carrefour to the Bulgarian market.

With Starbucks coming to Bulgaria, the competition between coffee chains would rise considerably, market representatives commented. Currently there are about 10 Bulgarian and foreign chains on the market.

“Bulgarian market is dynamic so I am not surprised it is attractive to a chain like Starbucks,” Angel Balabanov, who runs Costa Coffee in Bulgaria, said.

The first Starbucks coffee shops in Bulgaria were expected to be ready in mid-2008, DB Interconsult representatives announced. For now Starbucks had set its sights on Sofia, but there was the possibility of expanding its chain in the bigger cities around Bulgaria, Dnevnik daily sources announced.

Currently Starbucks was looking for a team to run and develop the company in Bulgaria – shop managers, HR managers, marketing specialists, real estate experts and a regional manager, Dnevnik daily said.