(New York) Starbucks posted record quarterly revenue at the end of 2022 thanks in particular to higher prices for its drinks and snacks, but the fall in sales in China is weighing on its results.
The coffeehouse chain posted revenue of $8.7 billion in the period from October to December, the first quarter of its lagged year.
This is a level never reached before and up 8% from the previous year, but it is below analysts’ expectations.
Starbucks stock, which had 36,170 stores at the end of 2022, fell 3% in electronic trading following the close of the New York Stock Exchange.
In China, the company’s second-largest market, same-store sales, a key retail metric, plunged 29% due to COVID-19 health restrictions.
In North America, these sales increased by 10%, driven 9% by the increase in the average amount spent by its customers and 1% by an increase in the number of purchases.
For Howard Schultz, who temporarily took over the reins of the company last year, the results remain “solid despite a difficult environment for consumers and at the level of inflation, a rather weak quarter for the distribution sector in as a whole and the unprecedented challenges related to COVID-19 in China”.
During a conference call, he reiterated his “confidence” in the objectives set for the year as a whole.
Mr. Schultz is to be replaced by Laxman Narasimhan in April.