The city of Tianjin's Goubuli Group, which goes back more than 150 years, has just acquired the China rights to Australia's largest coffee brand, Gloria Jean's, and has plans to develop a global coffee brand in China while using it to expand in the domestic catering business.

Goubuli is known for its uniquely flavored baozi (steamed buns) and has gradually increased its exposure as a caterer featuring North China cuisine, with its president, Zhang Yansen, explaining that they initially contacted the Gloria Jean's HQ back at the end of 2012.

People simply called the buns "gou bu li baozi" to reflect this, but its literal meaning is "stuffed bun that dogs are not interested in." Today, they are very popular with both Chinese and foreign visitors, and Goubuli has adopted "Go Believe" as its English brand.

Zhang went on to explain that it has taken nearly two years of tough and tedious negotiation to finally reach this decision and sign a contract on Dec 25, 2014.

The contract calls for the Group to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Tianjin Senyongtai Catering Co, as China's only rightful user of the Australian company's Gloria Jean’s brand.

In commenting on this, Zhang said, "China's coffee market has been growing at around 15 percent a year, or far higher than the two percent average growth of the global market," then,"because of the China market prospects the Goubuli Group has decided to get into coffee brewing."

Some research has shown China's the total coffee consumption, in 2012, at around 70 billion yuan ($11.26 billion) and that figure is expected to exceed 150 billion yuan over the next five years.

Gloria Jean's coffee originally started out in Chicago, Illinois, in the US, in 1979, then developed in Australia to become its largest coffee brand and one of the world's five largest. There are more than 1,000 Gloria Jean's stores in airports, shopping malls, and communities across 42 countries. The brand has 12 stores in China, in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin in the north and in Sichuan province.

Goubuli has implied that, after obtaining the Gloria Jean label, it will expand the business by cooperating with chain stores and could open as many as 200 new stores over the next five years.

More readings:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2011-02/22/content_12058186.htm