Korean cafe brand Caffe Bene plans to rapidly expand its presence in China with several outlet openings in the pipeline.

Caffe Bene targets 1000 outlets in China this year and 3000 by 2015, double the number of US rival Starbucks’ target of 1500 outlets by 2015.

Flagships are planned for cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chongqing.

Once the target network has been completed, it plans to publicly list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

It has collaborated with China Merchants Bank to launch a “coffee bank” which offers customers VIP services.