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Starbucks has pledged to open 300 new British stores, even as it denied reports of threatening to withhold investments in the UK in retaliation against David Cameron's public attack on the chain for tax avoidance. According to the US coffee chain said it "remains fully committed to opening 300 new stores and creating 5,000 new jobs by 2016". According to The Sunday Telegraph, the company's UK managing director, Kris Engskov, threatened to withhold £100 million of investment in the UK if the coffee chain continued to be singled out in the tax avoidance debate. The US company reaffirmed its commitment to expanding its footprint in Britain after reports said its UK boss angrily stormed into No 10 Downing Street, following the prime minister's reported singling out the coffee chain during a speech attacking multinational companies for tax avoidance. In a speech at Davos last week Cameron, said tax-avoiding companies had to "wake up and smell the coffee" and a No 10 spokesman replying to remarks as to whether Cameron's remarks were aimed at Starbucks, a No 10 spokesman said "the speech speaks for itself". According to Engskov, a former aide to US president Bill Clinton, Starbucks had "very constructive" discussions with Downing Street officials on Friday, but said the meeting was "long-scheduled" and not organised in reaction to Cameron's speech.
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