PORTLAND, Ore. – Starbucks Corp. is looking beyond its cafes for growth.

The coffee giant outlined plans Wednesday at its investor conference to triple the number of its cafes in China, offer more products in grocery stores and open new kinds of stores to build on its recent recovery.

Starbucks has done well this year after being battered at the start of the recession. The company responded by limiting new store openings, cutting costs including some jobs and closing hundreds of underperforming stores. In recent quarters, traffic in its stores has risen, along with revenue and profitability.

“No one at Starbucks is doing a victory lap,” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told investors at the meeting in New York.

Company leaders said they are not abandoning Starbucks’ focus on retail but plan to use the strength from that core business to support new plans including ambitious international growth. Starbucks has increased its presence in Canada, Japan and emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India and Russia. The company said it hopes to have 1,500 stores on mainland China by 2015.

Starbucks said it also plans to improve its U.S. retail operations by adding mobile payment options and improving the way it serves customers during peak hours. The company is also looking at opening smaller cafes and being choosier about when and where it opens new stores.

Starbucks started developing more products to sell through other retailers with the launch of Via instant coffee in its cafes. It has since rolled out Via in grocery stores, and it introduced a revamped line of Seattle’s Best Coffee products in grocery stores this week.