By LIU Yujing
Starbucks plans to expand its global store count to 55,000 by 2030, up from roughly 33,000 today. The world's largest coffee chain is betting on new types of stores, including smaller digital stores and curbside drive-thrus.
"Though we are growing off a large base, there is ample room to expand," Starbucks chief operating officer Roz Brewer said. The company is poised to have a "particular focus on high volume, high margin, suburban drive-thrus."
Starbucks' growth in China still outperforms other markets. Starbucks China physical stores are the core of its China growth plan with 600 new locations set to open in the fiscal year 2021, bringing the tally of stores to 6,000.
Starbucks Now stores will make up 10 percent of new additions. These mini-stores primarily provide pickups and take-outs through digital orders. They will mostly be located in business districts and office buildings.
The Seattle-based coffee chain has seen a steep decline in business this year. In Q2, Starbucks recorded the largest loss per share in more than a decade. Even in Q3, when performance got back to normal, same-store sales in the U.S. still fell 9 percent. The market outside the U.S. moved down 10 percent.
In China, its same-store sales grew 1 percent in September with the business set to fully recover by the end of the quarter. In Q2, 259 new locations opened across the country. Same-store sales are expected to climb by 2 to 4 percent in fiscal 2023, higher than previous projections of 1 to 3 percent.
Starbucks is also ratcheting up investment in the Chinese market. On November 16, work began on Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park in Kunshan, southern China's Jiangsu Province, with a total investment of nearly 1.1 billion yuan. The factory in the park will be Starbucks' first large manufacturing facility in Asia.