Starbucks on Tuesday reported better-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter as some of its turnaround efforts start to deliver results.
The Seattle coffee giant said its revenue was flat at $9.4 billion for the 13-week period ending Dec. 29. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of $9.3 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in September, said customer-focused changes — such as a decision to stop charging extra for non-dairy milk and a streamlining of the menu — were helping to improve service and drive store traffic.
In a conference call with investors Tuesday, Niccol said Starbucks is planning to cut its food and beverage offerings by 30 percent over the course of this year to simplify operations and speed service. Starbucks will also add digital menus to all of its company-owned US stores over the next 18 months to make ordering options clearer and make it easier to shift its offerings depending on the time of day.
Niccol said the company is also adding staff to some stores and experimenting with ordering algorithms that prioritize in-store customers and better pace mobile orders.
“The place where we run into problems, frankly, is the fact that there is just no gating on the mobile orders,” Niccol said. “All these orders come flooding in faster than even our customer can get there. So all these drinks are sitting on the counter, and it’s at the expense of providing any other experience for a customer that’s right in the store.”
Starbucks is trying to reestablish itself as a gathering place, and this week announced that it will start using ceramic mugs and offering in-store customers free refills of coffee or tea. The company is also trying to appeal to customers with a new rule that requires people to buy something if they want to hang out or use the restroom.
“This is back to the core of what makes Starbucks a unique experience,” Niccol said.
Starbucks’ same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — fell 4 percent compared to the same period last year. The decline was less than the 5.5 percent analysts anticipated, according to FactSet. It was also better than the previous quarter, when global same-store sales were down 7 percent.
US same-store sales also fell 4 percent in the first quarter. Starbucks said transactions were down 8 percent but customers spent more per visit. Starbucks also pulled back on discounts during the quarter, Niccol said.
Niccol said he recently visited China, Starbucks’ second-largest market, where sales have been hampered by lower-cost competitors. China’s same-store sales fell 6 percent in the fiscal first quarter.
Niccol said Starbucks is continuing to explore a strategic partnership that would help it continue to grow in China.
Niccol has also been reshaping Starbucks’ corporate staff. Earlier Tuesday, he announced the departure of two senior executives and a reshuffling of their job responsibilities.
Mike Grams, who most recently served as president of Taco Bell, will become Starbucks’ chief stores officer for North America. Meredith Sandland, the CEO of Empower Delivery and the former chief development officer at Taco Bell, will become Starbucks’ chief store development officer. Niccol led Taco Bell until 2018, when he left to run Chipotle.
Niccol also announced earlier this month that Starbucks plans an unspecified number of corporate layoffs by early March.
Starbucks’ shares rose less than 1 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday.
Starbucks reports better-than-expected quarterly sales as turnaround efforts begin
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Starbucks reports better-than-expected quarterly sales as turnaround efforts begin
- Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol says Starbucks plans to cut its food and beverage offerings by 30% over the course of this year to simplify operations and speed service
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
