China's Luckin Coffee opens first high-end store as it takes on Starbucks

BEIJING — China’s Luckin Coffee is taking direct aim at Starbucks

’ high-end roastery chain with a new flagship store in the country’s south that sells premium drinks.

It’s Luckin’s first major departure from its original strategy of operating budget-priced coffee kiosks – a move that helped the company overtake Starbucks in terms of the number of storefronts in China.

Now, with the U.S. company selling off most of its struggling China business to a local investment firm, Luckin is proving it’s more than made a comeback from fraud allegations in 2020 that forced it to delist from the Nasdaq.

The Chinese company on Sunday officially opened its two-floor Luckin Coffee Origin Flagship in Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong.