STARBUCKS Corp.’s outgoing executive chairman Howard Schultz said yesterday that a recent slowdown in China would be short-lived, seeking to salve investor concerns that the U.S. coffee chain is under pressure in the fast-growing market.

Schultz also hinted at a potential tie-up with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s billionaire founder Jack Ma that could help rev up online coffee sales for the chain in China.

Starbucks said last month China same-store sales would be flat to slightly negative in its second-biggest market in the April-June period, versus 7-percent growth a year earlier, triggering a sharp drop in the chain’s share price.

Schultz, on a farewell tour after he stepped down in June, said fears of a slowdown in the market were a “false narrative,” and that over time the closely watched metric would regain its momentum.

“It’s a very short-term number that Wall Street uses, it’s not a number we’re concerned about,” he said at a roundtable at the firm’s flagship Roastery store in Shanghai.

China has been a sweet spot for Starbucks for the past few years, with a burgeoning cafe culture driving rapid growth.

Schultz, who owned about 3 percent of Starbucks stock as of Dec. 18, sees China as overtaking the United States as Starbucks’ top market, with the firm aiming to double cafe numbers here to 6,000 by 2022.(SD-Agencies)