Starbucks has said it will focus on driving trade across all day parts in its European arm and target growth in traffic hubs.
The coffee giant recorded like-for-like sales up 7% globally for the quarter ending 29 March.
Like-for-likes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) were up 2% while America’s like-for-likes were up 7%.
Mike Conway, president of global channels, described the UK as one of the company’s largest markets and a key driver of success.
Kevin Johnson, president and chief operating officer, said EMEA was leading the way in innovation.
He said: We are building our EMEA business by introducing new food and beverage offerings and innovative new store designs while at the same time increasing the sales across all dayparts and successfully building capacity is key. And we continue to enter high customer traffic locations by adding additional channel licensees at venues such as train stations, airports and supermarkets.
“Equally important, the EMEA team’s laser focus on operations and the ongoing mix shift towards licensed stores enabled that segment to significantly increase both operating margin and operating income despite formidable foreign exchange headwinds, a subject Scott will discuss in a few moments.”
The company opened 210 net new stores in Q2, including its 5,000th store in China/Asia Pacific, bringing total stores worldwide to 22,088.
Like-for-like store transactions increased over 10 million in the US, and over 14 million globally.
The company said it had seen considerable growth in card sales.
Chairman Howard Schultz said: “You may recall that in our holiday Q1 we recorded record setting card sales and loads of $1.6 billion that we expected to drive traffic and positively impact our business in Q2 and that is precisely what occurred. More important is that we are now seeing large numbers of last holiday’s first time gift receivers become loyal, engaged, repeat Starbucks customers, supporting and contributing to the growth we’re seeing across our global customer base. And with the increasing customer acceptance of our mobile app, we now have over 16 million active users.
“Dollars loaded on Starbucks card continues to rise. This is a really important number, at 19% year-over-year increase in Q2 alone in which $1.1 billion in Q2 was loaded, a trend and a figure that bodes very well for our business in coming quarters.
“We know that increased Starbucks card sales drives increased My Starbucks Rewards membership and in turn increased traffic and sales in our stores. We added 1.3 million new My Starbucks Rewards members alone in Q2. More additional members in one quarter than most loyalty programs have in total and now have over 10 million active members with almost $6 million members being active Gold members. My Starbucks Rewards will continue to be among our most important business drivers as new members contribute not only to short term increases in revenue and profit but also to long term loyalty for many years to come.”
Schultz also praised the development of the company’s Mobile Order & Pay to over 600 stores in the Pacific Northwest. The company plans to roll it out across the States this calendar year.
It will also launch delivery in Seattle and in the Empire State building in New York City during the second half of 2015.
Schultz said Starbucks Flat White, an “espresso-forward handcrafted beverage”, which was introduced into the Americas segment early in Q2, has already generated the strong customer following and is driving a food attach exceeding original expectations.
Johnson said the US food programme continues to be a key and that Q2 US food sales grew 16% year on year.
He said: “Noteworthy is that the sales of our innovative new breakfast sandwich which has contributed to a 35% year over year growth in our breakfast sandwich program. Our lunch platform also delivered double digit year over year gains as well.”
