Starbucks post strong Q1 earnings, brings in more services

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MANILA – Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. recently posted strong first-quarter earnings growth at 82 percent due to more demand over the holidays.

While they’re enjoying sales growth, the company is also looking for ways to maintain this through expanding their frontline.

Starbucks is on the roll to get more customers to buy their food. They are doing this by creating new baked goodies, sandwiches, and salads. In other words – they want to be destination for grabbing a quick bite for lunch.

Aside from the morning treats, the Seattle-based company is also exploring the idea of offering beer and wine, especially in their stores in the United States. These plans are expected to roll out in the next five years.

On Thursday, the company announced that these new introductions are their way of getting more sales in – from morning to night. They are also planning to develop a program that will allow consumers to order ahead of time with the help of their smartphones.

“Operationally, we delivered the best in-store experiences to customers in our history,” said the company’s chairman and CEO Howard Schultz.

In December last year, the company posted earnings of $983.1 million. According to Zacks Investment Research, the posted numbers bested the forecasts of the Street.

Revenue of Starbucks increased by 5 percent last year, with customer traffic up by 2 percent compared with the growth two years ago.

Moreover, sales of their gift cards also helped in increasing their revenue. About 2.6 million cards were brought on December 23 alone and majority of the sales were in the United States and Canada. This showed a 17 percent growth compared to a year before.