On November 2nd, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) announced its results for the fourth quarter of the 2023 fiscal year (the third quarter of the natural year 2023) and the entire fiscal year.
Of great concern to the outside world, this is also the first annual report submitted by Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan after taking office in March this year.
According to the financial report, Starbucks' Q4 revenue was $9.374 billion, an increase of 11.56% year-on-year, reaching a new historical high; The net profit attributable to the parent company was $1.219 billion, compared to $878 million in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 38.84%. Same store sales increased by 8%; Adjusted earnings per share of $1.06.
For the entire fiscal year 2023, Starbucks' global comprehensive net income reached a historic high, increasing by 12% year-on-year to $36 billion, with a 14% increase after removing the impact of 2% exchange rate fluctuations.
Overall, Nashan led Starbucks to deliver a financial report that exceeded market expectations.
As of the close on November 2nd, Starbucks rose 9.48% to close at $100.01.
Q4 Record high number of new stores added in China
China remains an important market for Starbucks, and its omnichannel business continued to maintain strong momentum in the fourth quarter.
Over the past year, we have continued our growth momentum in the Chinese market, which has made us optimistic about our market position and confident in the unique competitive advantage of our business. "Nashan said he was satisfied with the performance of the Chinese market in the previous quarter.
According to the financial report, Starbucks China's revenue in the fourth quarter reached 840.6 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 15% (excluding the impact of exchange rate fluctuations); The annual revenue reached 3 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11% (excluding the impact of exchange rate fluctuations).
This year, as Lucky Coffee enters the "Ten Thousand Store Time", coffee brands have also secretly started a tug of war in the number of stores.
Kudi Coffee, founded only a year ago, is coming with great momentum, with over 6000 stores, setting a new record for opening coffee stores in China. In addition, Manner is not willing to fall behind, and in October this year, the number of stores officially exceeded 1000.
Under the competition of various brands, Starbucks' expansion speed is also accelerating.
Starbucks previously disclosed at the exchange meeting that the company plans to open an average of 3000 new stores in China every 9 hours by 2025, with a 50% increase in the number of stores over the next three years to 9000, covering 300 cities in China.
It is worth noting that as of the end of fiscal year 2023, Starbucks has a total of 38038 stores worldwide. In the fourth quarter, Starbucks net added 816 new stores globally, including 326 new stores in Huamen, setting a new historical record.
By the end of fiscal year 2023, Starbucks had 6806 stores in China, a year-on-year increase of 13%, and the expansion of stores continued to accelerate throughout the fiscal year.
The excellent profitability of newly opened stores has given us full confidence to achieve our vision of 9000 stores by 2025, which is to open 1000 new stores annually, "said Nasihan.
It is worth noting that same store sales are also steadily increasing, with Starbucks China's same store sales increasing by 5% and same store transaction volume increasing by 8% in the fourth quarter; The same store sales increased by 2% throughout the year.
In addition, at the end of the fourth quarter, the number of active members of Starbucks China's Star Club (who have consumed in the past 90 days) exceeded a record 21 million, a year-on-year increase of 22%. Many of these are young customers, "Nashan revealed.
China's average unit price per customer has declined
The more coffee shops open, the lower the price of coffee.
Since the beginning of this year, chain coffee brands led by Kudi Coffee and Lucky Coffee have sparked a wave of "9 yuan 9" coffee low prices.
On the one hand, the top brands' profit sharing did not affect revenue. On November 1st, Lucky Coffee announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2023. The total net income in the third quarter was 7.2 billion yuan, an increase of 84.9% year-on-year; The operating profit in the third quarter under US accounting standards (GAAP) was 9617 million RMB.
But it is inevitable that the profit margin of Lucky Coffee is declining. In the third quarter, the company's operating profit margin was 13.4%, a decrease of 5.4% month on month.
On the other hand, independent coffee shops that used to focus on prices ranging from 20 to 30 yuan have encountered significant impacts. According to big data statistics from Red Food, as of October 29th, there were approximately 191600 coffee shops nationwide. This year, there were approximately 95000 new coffee shops added nationwide and approximately 44000 closed.
How much will Starbucks China be affected by the price war?
The financial report shows that in the fourth quarter, Starbucks' global average unit price increased by 4%, while Starbucks' China average unit price decreased by 3% year-on-year, and China's average unit price decreased.
On this basis, Starbucks China's same store growth trend is also inferior to the global market. Data shows that in the fourth quarter, Starbucks' global same store sales increased by 8%, while Starbucks' China same store sales increased by 5%.
In recent years, with the acceleration of competition in the Chinese coffee market, especially with Lucky's sales surpassing Starbucks in the second quarter of this year, the pattern of Chinese coffee giants has changed.
However, Starbucks believes that it still has a unique competitive advantage. These advantages include excellent partners including the Chinese leadership team, unique stores, efficient operations with vertical integration and high digitization, and our highly relevant innovation to the local area, "said Nashan.
In addition, Starbucks' ambition to increase its presence in the Chinese market cannot be underestimated. On August 18th, Starbucks announced the establishment of the Starbucks China Innovation Technology Center (SITC) in Shenzhen to enhance its technical capabilities and data infrastructure, further driving the digitalization process of its stores and multi-channel. SITC will make its first investment of approximately 1.5 billion yuan (220 million US dollars) in the next three years.
On September 19th, Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Industrial Park was completed and put into operation in Kunshan, Jiangsu, which means that the Chinese market is the first to achieve large-scale integration of the vertical industry chain from raw beans to coffee. Nashan stated, "Its opening further demonstrates our positive outlook on the world's largest consumer market and our solemn commitment to driving business growth in and for China
The number of coffee drinkers in the Chinese market continues to grow, and we will steadily maintain our leading position in the high-end market, continuously develop store types, and enter more new cities, "said Nashan.