Starbucks’ abundance of stores stopped being a punchline years ago. But the coffee chain on Thursday said there was, somehow, still room for even more of them.
Starbucks Corp.
SBUX,
on Thursday said it wants to have 55,000 stores around the world by 2030, with plans to open new kinds of stores in the U.S. dedicated to pick-up and drive-through. The chain currently has a little more than 38,000 stores globally.
Those plans were announced as part of a broader initiative for the years ahead that included targets for $3 billion in savings, another 75 million rewards members and a bump in worker hours, wages and other incentives.
More Starbucks customers are doing more business via its app — for cold beverages, food and to-go orders. But the company has faced questions about demand, amid higher prices for basics. Starbucks stores, meanwhile, have continued to unionize as workers demand better pay and protections.
“To capture that demand we will build more new stores — with new formats, in new cities and cities we’re already in,” Sara Trilling, executive vice president and president of Starbucks North America, said in a statement. “To be clear, Starbucks has not saturated the U.S. market.”
Starbucks currently has more than 16,000 stores in the U.S., with expectations to expand that count to 20,000 longer-term. Abroad, the company has leaned on China for sales growth.
The chain laid out the plans after reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings earlier in the day. Executives at that time said they expected fiscal 2024 same-store sales growth of 5% to 7%, with earnings growth of 15% to 20%. But some analysts have questioned some of Starbucks’ previous longer-term targets.
Shares were up 0.2% after hours on Thursday, after finishing 9.5% higher during the regular session.
Starbucks said it plans to generate $3 billion in savings over three years. It said $2 billion of that would come from “outside the store” in cost of goods sold. Those savings goals, it said, would help it “reinvest in the business” and “deliver returns to shareholders through progressive margin expansion and earnings growth.”
The company also said that by the end of fiscal 2025, it expects workers’ hourly income at U.S. stores to “double” when compared to fiscal 2020. The gains, it said, would come from more hours and higher wages. It said it would share more details on a “new bundle of partner experience enhancements in the U.S.” next week.
Starbucks on Thursday also said it would continue to expand its menu offerings, via customizable orders and all-day breakfast and all-day snacks.
And following a collaboration begun last year that allowed Delta Air Lines Inc.
DAL,
SkyMiles and Starbucks rewards members to earn miles when they spent money at Starbucks, Starbucks on Thursday said it planned to offer similar partnerships “with a financial institution and a hospitality partner” in the next six months.
Starbucks shares are down 0.6% so far this year.
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