Financing Restrictions and a COVID surge in December hammered sales in the Seattle-based coffee chain’s second-biggest market. But Starbucks still has big plans for the country. Starbucks same-store sales in China plunged 42% in December amid a renewed COVID surge that closed some 1,800 locations. / Photograph: Shutterstock. Starbucks did great last quarter, not only in the U.S. but in all corners of the world. Just don’t look at the Seattle-based coffee giant’s second-largest market, that is. China, which the company has long argued will one day take over the top spot, has struggled with continued COVID shutdowns and renewed surges of the coronavirus. Same-store sales in the last three months of 2022 declined 29% there, including a 42% decline in December. The 29% decline was four times worse than the company expected. And the company is uncertain about when it will fully recover in the country. “We are expecting the second half of fiscal 2023 in China to be stronger than the first half,” Interim CEO Howard Schultz told investors on Thursday. “But uncertainties remain and the better part of valor is to remain cautious around precisely when our recovery in China will take full flight.” Yet company […]
Click here to view original web page at www.restaurantbusinessonline.com
