On May 2nd, it was reported that global coffee giant Starbucks suffered a severe blow on May 1st, with its stock price plummeting over 15% at one point. The company's market value evaporated by around 115 billion Chinese yuan in just one day, marking its largest drop since March 2020.
This significant stock plunge is closely tied to Starbucks' latest financial report. The report revealed that in the first quarter of 2024 (January 1st to March 31st), Starbucks' key metrics such as revenue and earnings per share fell short of market expectations.
Of particular note is the 4% year-on-year decline in same-store sales, the first drop since 2020, contradicting market expectations of a 1.46% growth.
Faced with the sharp decline in performance, Starbucks has begun adjusting its full-year revenue growth forecast, lowering it to low single digits and hinting that adjusted earnings per share may remain flat. This news undoubtedly heightened market anxiety, leading to a significant stock plunge.
Some analysts pointed out that Starbucks' disclosed performance this time may be the worst among all major companies to date. In an effort to boost sales, Starbucks has tried a series of new strategies, including afternoon promotions and introducing new products like lavender lattes. However, these measures seem to have not significantly improved its performance.
In the North American market, Starbucks also saw a 3% decline in same-store sales, with varying degrees of decreases in customer traffic and average spending.
In the international market, especially in China, Starbucks faces even more severe challenges, with a significant 11% drop in same-store sales.
Starbucks CEO Narasimhan stated during a conference call that this trend is mainly influenced by occasional customer reductions, changes in holiday patterns, and the normalization of customer behavior after market reopening last year.
Meanwhile, domestically, the well-known Chinese coffee brand Luckin Coffee presents a completely different development trend. Luckin Coffee's first-quarter financial report recently released shows a total net revenue of 6.2781 billion yuan, a 41.5% year-on-year growth.
Additionally, Luckin Coffee added a net of 2,342 stores in the first quarter, bringing the total number of stores to 18,590, including 12,199 self-operated stores and 6,391 franchised stores. The announcement of these achievements undoubtedly brings a new competitive landscape to the coffee market.
