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Starbucks is the world’s largest coffee chain, with 21,000 company-operated stores and 19,000 licensed locations worldwide as of late 2024. Nearly half of its company-owned outlets are in the U.S. Its cafés serve hot and iced coffee, espresso drinks, tea, and specialty beverages, along with breakfast items, sandwiches, and baked goods. Starbucks is also a major coffee roaster and wholesaler, selling packaged coffee and tea in its cafés and through grocery and retail channels. The company recently launched a turnaround plan, “Back to Starbucks,” focused on improving the in-store experience and encouraging customers to spend more time at its locations.

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Starbucks (SBUX): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Starbucks

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Good afternoon. My name is Diego, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to Starbucks' Third Quarter Fiscal Year twenty twenty five Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

I will now turn the call over to Katherine Park, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Park, you may now begin your conference.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Starbucks' third quarter fiscal year twenty twenty five results. Today's discussion will be led by Brian Nickel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Kathy Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This conference call will include forward looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from these statements. Any such statements should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements in our earnings release and risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC, including our latest annual report on Form 10 ks and quarterly report on Form 10 Q. Starbucks assumes no obligation to update any of these forward looking statements or information.

GAAP results in the third quarter fiscal year twenty twenty five include restructuring charges that are excluded from our non GAAP results. Revenue, operating margin and EPS growth metrics on today's call are also measured in constant currency and represent non GAAP measures. Please refer to the earnings release and our website at investor.starbucks.com to find reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures. This conference call is being webcast and an archive of the webcast will be available on our website through Friday, 09/12/2025. Also, for your calendar planning purposes, please note that our fourth quarter fiscal year twenty twenty five earnings conference call has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, 10/29/2025. With that, I'll turn the call over to Brian.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining today. It's clear Back to Starbucks is the right plan. It is grounded in feedback from our customers and partners and it's rooted in what has always set us apart, a welcoming coffee house where people gather and where we serve the finest coffee handcrafted by our skilled baristas. This quarter, we've made meaningful progress and we are ahead of our expectations. We're moving quickly to transform both the business and our culture.

We're testing, learning and focusing on the work that has the biggest impact. We're We're fixing the operational foundations of the business and building a platform for innovation in 2026. Some of the changes are already visible, while others will be seen in the months ahead. There's still much to do, but I'm excited by what I see. I'm confident that we're not just getting back to Starbucks, we are building a better Starbucks, where everyone can experience the best of Starbucks, one that is stronger, more resilient and consistently growing.

A Starbucks that is once again the gold standard in customer service, partner experience, the coffee house experience and financial performance. Let me start by sharing the results and then talk about the progress we are making. For the quarter, total company net revenue was $9,500,000,000 with a global comparable store sales decline of 2%, a global operating margin of 10.1%, global net new store growth of 4% and earnings per share of $0.50 In North America, Canada led the way with its second consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales, while in The U. S. Comparable sales declined 2%.

We are clearly in the early stages of our turnaround in The U. S, but our work is gaining momentum. In our international business, our EPS in the quarter reflects the strategic investments we're making in our Back to Starbucks strategy, like Leadership Experience 2025, which we believe will power our future growth. While our financial results for the quarter don't yet reflect all the progress we've made, I see meaningful signs from across our U. S.

Business that we're on the right path. Here are a few examples. We've energized our partners and they see and feel the difference. Retail partner engagement scores are up and coffee house leader engagement is nearing historic highs. Hourly partner turnover is 49.1% and shift completion is at a record 98.2%.

Customers are liking our marketing and noticing that our speed, hospitality and accuracy are improving. Customer connection scores are up and customer complaints are down, both quarter over quarter and year over year. Customer value perceptions are near two year highs, driven by gains among Gen Z and millennials, who make up over half our customer base. We saw the percentage of company operated coffee houses with positive full day transaction comps and positive morning transactions improve for the third straight quarter. Non rewards customers delivered transaction growth year over year for the first time since the post pandemic recovery.

Our college and university license business saw year over year comparable sales growth in the low double digits, showing renewed brand love from younger customers. We have huge strengths that differentiate us and form the foundation of our turnaround. We have three strong businesses, in cafe, drive thru and digital that are each substantial on their own. And we're rapidly growing a fourth with a delivery business that delivered year over year transaction growth of more than 25% and looks to be highly incremental. Average peak drive thru times are under our service time goal at three minutes and twenty seconds across our more than 7,600 drive thru coffee houses.

Our mobile app is highly rated and our reputation as a digital leader is a huge strength. We saw non discounted transactions grow among our nearly thirty four million ninety day active members in our rewards program. And we have one of the largest social communities in the industry with over 65,000,000 followers. These strengths and signs of progress are why I remain confident in our ability to win. We have a lot of work underway, but today I want to focus on three critical areas: operational changes in our coffeehouses transforming our coffeehouse portfolio and then how we plan to build on these foundational changes with a wave of innovation in twenty twenty six.

Six. Let me start with the operational changes. We've already taken several steps to improve the customer and partner experience, including bringing back condiment bars, eliminating the upcharge for nondairy milks, implementing a new coffee house code of conduct and rolling out coffeehouse walk certifications. In June, we brought together 14,000 coffeehouse leaders from across North America For Leadership Experience 2025. We focused on coffee, craft, connection, opportunity and sharpened our commitment to customer service excellence.

The momentum from the event continues to inspire our coffeehouse leaders as they drive our transformation. The most significant change will come as we begin fully scaling Green Apron Service across all U. S. Company operated coffee houses in mid August. Green Apron service is a new foundational operating model that establishes repeatable, consistent and scalable standards.

It is Starbucks' biggest investment ever in operating standards and customer service. Green Apron service starts with the five key moments, including crafting connection that define the experience we want every customer to have every time they visit. It is enabled by an evolved staffing model, which includes adjustments to roster size, labor hours, peak coverage and deployment. We're also rolling out our SmartQ technology, an advanced order sequencing algorithm designed to ensure consistent, timely service across all our access points. We've accelerated the rollout of Green Apron service well ahead of schedule because of the strong early results from our pilots.

Just eight weeks into our 1,500 store test, partner feedback has been tremendous. Coffeehouse is using Green Apron service have driven improvements in transactions, sales and customer service times. Peak transaction comps have already started to grow and all day transaction comps are outperforming the broader North American portfolio. Where we've deployed SmartQ, we've seen a double digit improvement in cafe orders handed off in under four minutes, with 80% of in cafe orders now meeting that target. Drive thru service times are consistently under four minutes and mobile order and pay is more accurate and on time.

SmartQ is bringing order to mobile order. Once all elements of Green Apron service are fully implemented together and customers come to appreciate the improved experience, we believe these trends will continue to improve. To ensure they do, we're launching a new Grow Report in Q1 fiscal year twenty twenty six. It's a simple tool that helps coffeehouse leaders focus on five key drivers of same store sales growth, and it will provide sharper insights to improve our outlier performance and incentivize retail leaders. The GROW report and our coffeehouse walks are emblematic of a fundamental shift in our expectations for retail leaders, who will be spending more time in stores focused on operational excellence and customer service.

Lastly, we still have an opportunity to meet the demand we already have by reducing unacceptably high out of stocks. The supply chain team is focused on it, and in our pilots, we've been able to improve item availability. Now I want to talk about the changes we're driving to our coffee house portfolio. Every coffee house we operate should be warm and welcoming and provide a place for customers to connect and gather. They should have a great seat for any occasion and they should provide customers access to a high quality mobile order and pay experience and a drive through where possible.

We slowed new builds and major renovations to prioritize a new coffee house uplift program, with a target investment of approximately $150,000 per store and minimal to no downtime. Uplifts are intended to quickly replace thousands of seats we removed and introduce greater texture, warmth and layered design. Work is accelerating now in New York City. We'll begin in Southern California later in Q4. And by the end of calendar year 2026, we will have completed at least 1,000 uplifts across North America.

We've also begun work on the coffee house of the future. We have a new standalone prototype that will open in fiscal twenty twenty six that has 32 seats, a drive thru and a roughly 30% lower cost to build. A small format version with approximately 10 seats is under construction in New York City and will open in the next few months. We believe this new prototype will deliver an exceptional customer experience, improve unit economics and unlock growth opportunities in more markets. We plan to complete an evaluation of our North American portfolio by the end of this fiscal year to ensure we have the right coffee houses in the right locations to drive profitability and deliver the Starbucks experience.

As a part of this work, we plan to sunset our mobile order and pickup only concept in fiscal twenty twenty six. We found this format to be overly transactional and lacking the warmth and human connection that defines our brand. We have a strong digital offering and believe we can deliver the same level of convenience through our community coffee houses with a superior mobile order and pay experience. Together, we expect these changes to our operating model and our coffee house portfolio strategy will improve and transform the foundations of our North American business so that we are reestablishing that moment of connection between a barista and their customer, bringing back warm and welcoming coffeehouses with great seats, delivering drinks in four minutes or less in the cafe and drive thru while bringing order to mobile order rightsizing store renovations and new build costs eliminating unproductive menu items and reducing our reliance on deep discounts and promotions. Because of this hard work, we are creating an operating platform to build on with a wave of innovation in 2026 across digital, loyalty and our menu.

This quarter, we made the most of legacy plans in place, but we have much higher ambition. Building on our Back to Starbucks plan and new foundations, we will bring a consistent drumbeat of innovation to market through fiscal year twenty twenty six. We're building a robust menu innovation pipeline, leveraging our starting five approach and stage gate process that is centered on premium coffee experiences and exciting beverages beyond coffee, artisanal food that resonates across day parts and the function forward modern offerings that customers want. In late Q4, we'll introduce Protein Cold Foam. This is the first breakthrough innovation built and tested with our starting five approach.

It taps into what has become one of our most popular modifiers, cold foam, which grew 23% year over year. Protein cold foam with no added sugar is an easy way to add 15 grams of protein to virtually any cold beverage, and customers can also add the flavor of their choice. Early in calendar year 2026, we'll launch a reimagined artisanal bait case and a bold new 1971 dark roast coffee available on our Clover Vertica brewer in all U. S. Company operated coffee houses.

As we move further into 2026, expect more experiential beverages and nutritious satisfying bites for the afternoon daypart. This month, we'll start testing new coconut water based tea and coffee beverages in select markets. And we'll lean into customer needs with upcoming tests of gluten free and high protein options to create food that's as artisanal as our beverages. In 2026, we'll also introduce new platforms, including global flavors and customizable energy offerings. And of course, we'll continue to own our hit seasons like fall with the Pumpkin Spice Latte and Holiday.

Our rewards program is a huge asset for us with those nearly thirty four million ninety day active members. In early twenty twenty six, we'll launch significant innovations in our Starbucks Rewards program, addressing key customer feedback and introducing exciting new features designed to grow loyalty, brand love and engagement. We have an incredible digital business and in 2026, we'll lean in further with a new Starbucks app and significant enhancements to mobile order and pay that will further improve our ability to deliver a great customer experience at pickup. As we work to turn around The U. S.

Business, we believe we have huge opportunities outside The U. S. Too. This quarter, our international business posted more than $2,000,000,000 in quarterly revenue for the first time ever. Many of the changes we are driving in The U.

S. Like lower cost store builds and renovations can scale around the world, creating opportunities to grow the business faster. In China, the near term changes we made are paying off. Through Q3, we achieved our third consecutive quarter of revenue growth and total comp turned positive. Beverage innovation and new customization options drove customer frequency and our changes to non coffee pricing broaden our customer base and bolstered afternoon and evening sales.

As you know, we've been working to identify a strategic partner with a like minded vision and values to help us capture future growth opportunities in China. We've received significant interest from more than 20 interested parties, and we're evaluating options. We remain committed to our China business and want to retain a meaningful stake. The intense interest in partnering with us is a testament to the great team, strong brand and long term opportunity for Starbucks in China. It really is a vote of confidence.

Finally, we will only enter a transaction if it makes sense for Starbucks. Across other markets, performance continues to improve as well. In The U. K, we see continued momentum with improving comparable sales performance in the low single digits, driven by a focus on connection, beverage consistency, food innovation and labor investments to support peak operating hours. The momentum stretches across EMEA as well, with overall Q3 revenue and comparable sales up year over year.

Our business in Turkey, for example, is performing strongly despite a challenging economic environment, and we opened our 700 store in the market. In Latin America, we maintained double digit year over year growth in system sales, revenue and operating income. Mexico is approaching the 1,000 store milestone and provides a roadmap for profitable growth in the region. As we look forward, we see significant opportunity to accelerate growth across our international license markets. The team is focused on it and is thinking big.

As I look back on the progress we've made this quarter, in my ten months here, I believe more than ever in our Back to Starbucks plan. We've had to fix a lot, but we've done the hard work on the hard things. We've moved quickly to build a more consistent operating model, set clear customer service standards and bring order to mobile orders. We're rightsizing our new store builds and renovations to improve economics, and we're addressing inventory availability. But these are areas we know we can move even faster.

And we're fixing our cost structure and finding offsets across our P and L to support investments at the store level. This transformation lays the operating foundation for ambitious innovation agenda and I'm confident by the 2026, Starbucks in The U. S. Will look and feel very different, delivering the industry's best customer experience. We're not just getting back to Starbucks, we're building a better Starbucks, where everyone can experience the best of our brand.

As we do, we believe we'll drive a stronger top line and in time healthy sustainable profits will follow. I know there's a lot of interest in our long term plans and I'm pleased to confirm that we will hold an Investor Day in 2026. I look forward to seeing many of you in person. Before I close, I want to say thank you to our Green Apron partners. The energy and enthusiasm and leadership experience was inspiring, and I continue to see that same momentum every time I visit our coffee houses.

Back to Starbucks is coming to life through the passion and leadership of our coffee house leaders and Green Apron partners. I'm grateful for the way they're embracing change and delivering world class customer experiences. Thank you. They're truly creating the green wave. I also appreciate how our support center partners are embracing the changes in how we get work done.

We're all committed to building a culture centered on performance, accountability, and prioritizing support for our coffee house teams. Thank you for the important role you're playing in driving this change. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kathy to share more detail on our financial results for the quarter.

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm now four months into my role at Starbucks, and I am confident we have the right strategy in place. We are moving with pace and urgency and are seeing encouraging results from our pilots. We are testing, learning and iterating quickly as we work towards rebuilding a better Starbucks, known for exceptional customer service and serving the world's finest coffee. I'll now cover our Q3 results.

Our Q3 consolidated revenue was $9,500,000,000 up 3% to the prior year, reflecting 6% net new company operated store growth over the past twelve months, partially offset by a 2% decline in comparable store sales. Our global comparable store sales performance was led by a 2% decline in The U. S. With U. S.

Transaction comps down less than 4%. While our transactions remain impacted by lapping highly discounted promotions in the prior year, we are seeing continued progress. U. S. Company operated transaction comps improved for the third consecutive quarter.

The percentage of U. S. Company operated stores with positive full day transaction comps and positive morning transactions also improved for the third consecutive quarter. We are seeing improvement across most urbanities, most notably in central business districts. And non Starbucks Rewards members transactions grew year over year for the first time since the post pandemic recovery.

We're also making progress with our Starbucks Rewards customers with quarter over quarter improvements in the number of transactions not on promotion. We'll continue to drive growth and loyalty with our rewards customers through a reimagined loyalty program next year. Our ticket growth in The U. S. For the quarter was 2%, reflecting fewer discount driven offers in the current year.

We have reduced the percentage of discounted transactions by a third, putting us back to more normalized levels as we build back a healthier transaction base and focus on improving the overall value proposition for our customers. Rounding out North America, Canada had another strong quarter with sales comp growth in the low single digits, propelled by product innovation, particularly in food. Our U. S. Licensed store portfolio revenue declined in Q3, driven by the grocery and retail channels.

However, we saw strength in airports where sales volumes grew in the quarter despite TSA traffic declines, as well as in the college and university segment, as Brian mentioned. Licensed stores are a critical part of our portfolio, and we have been actively addressing licensee economics and profitability to fulfill our aspiration to be a world class licensor. Outside The U. S, the international segment again delivered strong performance with seven out of the top 10 markets comping positively with particular strength in The UK and Mexico. China continues to grow and improve profitability.

Starbucks China's comparable store sales grew 2% in the quarter, driven by a 6% improvement in comparable transactions. The market's comp growth was driven by successful product innovation, including the new Zero Sugar full flavor platform, a strong integrated marketing campaign and outsized delivery growth. Japan had negative comparable sales in the quarter as the market lapped strong LTL performance in the prior year and has been challenged by soft consumer sentiment. However, our brand continues to be strong and our core coffee and tea products are performing well. In our Channel Development segment, our Q3 revenues grew 10% year over year due to higher revenue in the Global Coffee Alliance.

We remain market share leaders in the North America at home and ready to drink coffee categories and continue to work with our partners to innovate and broaden our reach beyond our cafes. Turning to store growth, we opened three zero eight net new stores globally in Q3, primarily consisting of company operated growth in The U. S. And China and international license growth. As Brian mentioned, we are conducting a comprehensive evaluation of our portfolio to ensure our coffee houses can represent our brand and customer promise, which we expect to complete by the end of the fiscal year.

As we look to the future, we are focused on disciplined capital deployment with work underway to reduce the cost of both new stores and renovations without compromising a warm welcoming community coffee house environment. Shifting to margin, our Q3 consolidated operating margin was 10.1%, contracting six fifty basis points from the prior year, primarily driven by deleverage and investments in support of Back to Starbucks, including additional labor hours and Leadership Experience twenty twenty five. Shifting to G and A. In Q3, G and A increased by 18% versus the prior year, driven by our investment in Leadership Experience twenty twenty five. This event was a galvanizing moment for our coffee house leaders, and they returned to their communities inspired to take action and deliver world class customer service across our stores in North America.

Q3 EPS was $0.50 down 45% from the prior year, primarily reflecting the impact of expense deleverage and our back to Starbucks investments, including labor and Leadership Experience 2025. Our effective tax rate was higher this quarter due to a discrete tax item in the quarter as we optimize cash deployment across markets. This combined with the Leadership Experience investment drove approximately $0.11 of our Q3 EPS decline on a year over year basis. To conclude my remarks on our Q3 results, we remain committed to our capital allocation strategy and disciplined capital investment, maintaining our strong balance sheet and BBB plus BAA1 credit rating and returning cash to shareholders via dividends. While we have not provided official guidance for the year, I'd like to offer some preliminary thoughts on our broader outlook and the shape of Q4.

As Brian said, we continue to make the most of the existing innovation plans and believe we have a strong fall platform, including the return of our popular Pumpkin Spice Latte that overlays the transformative work taking place on the company, brand and customer experience. Taking into account that we have a lot in flight combined with the uncertain consumer environment, we are conservative on how the current year over year trends will change in Q4 for The U. S. Company operated business. We know we lose the benefit of ticket and that transactions are improving.

Just where they will net out is unclear. We are pleased to be ahead of schedule with key foundational programs like Green Apron service and we are confident that 2026 will continue to improve as we see the effects of our back to Starbucks strategy begin to scale. Both the tariff environment and coffee prices continue to be dynamic. We continue to mitigate expected tariff exposure outside of green coffee and are pleased to see green coffee prices moderate. We have also increased our coffee coverage relative to last quarter as prices have declined.

Due to our coffee buying and hedging practices, you should expect to see both moving average coffee costs and coffee tariff impacts lag the market with year over year coffee cost increases expected to peak in the 2026. Our margins in the near term are impacted by critical investments in our stores, partners and customers. However, the early signs of progress we're seeing in partner engagement, transactions in our critical dayparts and customer feedback give us confidence that these investments will yield the returns to drive much healthier margins over time. As we progress on our back to Starbucks strategy, we will invest over $500,000,000 of additional labor hours into our U. S.

Company operated portfolio over the next year, beginning with our Green Apron service rollout in mid August. To offset these investments, we are focusing on driving a healthier and more efficient cost structure that allows us to weather macro headwinds, drive strong sales flow through, and simultaneously fund our back to Starbucks strategy. We are working on resetting and improving our cost structure across the entire P and L with disciplined prioritization, driving more efficiency, accountability and agility into the organization. In closing, I'm impressed with how far we've come and know we have more work to do. We know this turnaround is a multiyear effort.

We are rebuilding our core foundation on which we can scale and innovate to deliver the best of Starbucks customer experience, while instilling stronger discipline in our cost structure and capital deployment plans. A lot is happening today behind the scenes, and these efforts will come together more visibly by the end of next year. And when they do, I am highly confident that our financial performance will follow, first in our comps, then in our earnings. I'd like to thank our partners around the world for their commitment to transforming Starbucks into the premier customer service organization that all our stakeholders, partners, customers and shareholders will be proud of. And with that, Brian and I are happy to take your questions. Thank you, operator.

Thank And your first question comes from David Tarantino with Baird. Your line is now live.

Hi. Good afternoon and congrats on the early progress. I wanted to ask about the investment you're making in the stores. Thank you, Kathy, for quantifying that $500,000,000 in labor hours. Can you maybe just frame up some of the cost offsets you mentioned to that number and whether you think it's possible to fully that number or whether you're going to need to see sales leverage in addition to the cost offset to get the right return?

I guess how are you thinking about the overall margin impact from that collective effort?

Yes. Good afternoon, David. Thanks for the question. First and foremost, let's make sure we understand though that the Green Apron service is a foundational operating model that establishes the repeatable, consistent, scalable standards that we want and need in customer service. And so it's such an important investment.

But to answer your question then, we are, as we shared even last quarter, working across the entire P and L. So named it in the prepared remarks, but from cost of goods sold to operating expenses to G and A, the team is taking on both short term and long term cost structure efficiency work that we're doing. So not ready to quantify the exact offset. I would tell you we see lots and lots of opportunity and we're getting after it. Some of it will start to come together pretty quickly and some of it is going to take us a little bit longer.

What I would tell you is we're working on '26, 27 and '28. So we're putting in the more durable, sustainable activities to make sure we don't just address it once, but we actually address it long term. What's really exciting though is when we start to grow, we'll actually like what comes through to the bottom line when we start to see that top line come through.

Thank you. And your next question comes from David Palmer with Evercore ISI. Please state your question.

Great. Yes, just building on what David was just talking about, I guess, conceptually, right now we're in an investment mode and we can imagine that margins may not be moving up very quickly, might be moving down a little bit here in the near term. But I'm wondering how you're thinking about things evolving longer term. I would imagine there'll be an Analyst Day where you'll want to go through each of the pieces of this. But just conceptually, do you see the company going back to pre COVID levels of margin that might be that 17% type margin corporate wide, that little over 20% in The Americas?

Is that reasonable to expect? And what sort of journey do you think would how long could that take? And what are the big things that are the must get right that you're thinking over the next two or three years that would really get you there if you think you could get back there? And thank you.

Good afternoon, David. I'll start and then I'm sure Brian can add too. So first off, you asked about maybe longer term kind of earning potential. And first off, Brian mentioned it in his remarks, we're excited. We've put a date on the calendar, a time early twenty twenty six.

We believe we'll be in a good position to share not just short term, but really longer term how we see this company playing out. So we're really excited about putting a date out there for the Investor Day, early twenty twenty six. Then to answer your question around 2019, is that the right benchmark and aspiration? What I would tell you is it's a good guidepost. It helps us to understand what is possible.

Obviously, have to drive top line first and foremost. That's the most important thing. But once we do start to drive the top line, can we set up a cost structure below that that delivers the kinds of profitability that we would expect? And so 2019 is just my best guidepost, our best guidepost right now. We'll see as we approach that guidepost if there's more room past that.

But right now, let's look at that as our guidepost. It provides a really clear, if you unpack the P and L, a really clear path to get there and that's what the team's working on. Right now is literally that path. And it's going to take a little bit. I'll leave it there.

Yeah. Hey David, this is Brian. The only thing I would add is, you know, I've gotten this question before around, do you think Starbucks over earned? And as I better understand the business and I see the opportunities in front of us, I don't think that is the case. I think there is tremendous opportunity in front of us where we get the operating foundation in place, and then we put into place the innovation that we know resonates with customers.

And then we continue to do the right things so that our partners are set up for success to deliver the innovation and the ongoing operating model. And as Kathy mentions, we put a really strong focus on our cost structure. The idea then is you build back a better Starbucks and that's what we're after. So, 2019 serves as a good roadmap, but we have aspirations to not only achieve that, but hopefully exceed that. And as we go on this journey, we'll bring you guys along with us and I look forward to sharing our thoughts on how this all unfolds at the Investor Day early next year.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Harbour with Morgan Stanley. Please state your question.

Yes, thanks. Good afternoon, guys. Just on the Green Apron service thing, obviously, you've sort of accelerated that, it sounds like. Could you talk about sort of how fast you would expect that to spread through the whole company store base? How fast those investments will happen.

And I think you talked about at your conference sort of making sure there was an assistant store manager in every location. Is that also part of that 500 or I guess what exactly is sort of included there?

Yes. Look, so the Green Apron service model will start rolling out the middle of this month. And obviously, it takes a little bit of time to get it across all our stores and implemented where our rosters are the right size and then deployed correctly. But what we've seen in pilot is, it takes a little bit of time for us to get into a rhythm with the new labor that we have on the team, and it also takes a little bit of time for our customers to recognize that they're getting a different kind of service experience. The good news is once both of those things stick, we see transactions move in the right direction from there.

And so you heard in my earlier comments, what I'm excited about is as the time goes on, we see this building and building and building. And then when you start thinking about the innovation you can layer on top of that, now you're building from a place of strength with innovation as opposed to kind of a place of weakness or trying to recover with innovation. In regard to the assistant managers, that's going to be part of the roster, and it really is an element of then, I think, staying true to our mission of we want to promote within greater than 90%. And this presents a tremendous opportunity, and we talked about this at our leadership experience, tremendous opportunity for people to grow with Starbucks through the assistant manager role. And so that's what you see unfolding over time, is as we get the roster size right, we'll then figure out how we can promote within that roster and within the organization to that assistant manager role, which then nicely sets us up to build a pipeline for the future growth of new stores with managers and so on and so forth.

I'm delighted that Mike and the operating team have just done a really great job of bringing the Green Apron service model from an idea to true execution that's now scalable. And now we're in the process of scaling it. So really excited for mid August to get here, then really excited for us to build on that strong foundation.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Sara Senatore with Bank of America. Please state your question.

Thank you. Just a clarification, Brian, on your last comment and then a question about food innovation. So it sounds like actually the operational improvements perhaps weren't the primary driver of the sequential improvement transactions given it takes customers time to sort of appreciate them. So has it been marketing? I know you've invested maybe in more traditional marketing Or I guess to what do you credit the sequential improvement if the operations are sort of still early days?

And then just on food, I think this is the second quarter where you've called out food in Canada. Are there any kind of lessons you can take from that that can be applied to The U. S. Because I know food feels like it's been an opportunity for a very long time, so just trying to understand what maybe moves the dial on that? Thank you.

Yes, thanks Sarah. So yes, look to answer your question on the operating side, I do believe we're operating better as a system. The Green Apron service model is not across the system yet, but remember we rolled out the five key moments, we brought forward the condiment bar, we brought forward obviously, the idea of, you know, speed as it relates to less than four minutes in cafe, and also less than four minutes in the drive thru. And this is one the things that I think is always impressive is when you give clarity to operating leaders, they understand what the mission is and then they figure out how best to achieve it. What the Green Apron service model does is it takes that and makes it even more consistent, more reliable and also gives frankly our partners more tools to achieve those key customer metrics that we're after over and over again.

So we've made operational progress, which I'm really excited about. And, you know, I think Green Apron service then will kind of institutionalize it and become our system. And hopefully, I think we'll become famous for Green Apron service and be the defining customer service company that I think Starbucks should be and that's what we're after, that's our mission. To answer your other part of this question though, I do think our marketing is playing a positive effect on the business. You might have heard in our comments, we're seeing both non discounted rewards customer transactions pick up and we're also seeing non rewards transaction customers increase and we're up year over year in third quarter.

So I think we've got a couple of things working in our favor, much better marketing and I think a stronger operating system right now. And I think we're going to continue to drive against both of those things going forward. So I'm delighted that what you're seeing is people respond to the marketing and the message. And then I'm also delighted and frankly impressed by our operators on their ability to take a clear message and figure out how to make that happen in their stores. And now we're going to, I think, amplify that with the Green Apron service model.

Food, your question on food. Yes, the team in Canada has done a nice job. Was actually just up in Toronto with the team and up there they've done some waffles and pancakes and I think they're just getting ready to do some bagel bites, which are also really exciting. And yes, of course there is opportunity for us to figure out what they are doing up in Canada from a food standpoint to figure out what makes sense for us to bring not only to The U. S.

But around the world. And I would also share with you, I happened to be in London a week or so ago, and the same thing, the team is doing a great job on enhancing their food and their bake case, and this is one of the things I think frankly Starbucks has an opportunity in general on is we have 40,000 stores around the world, we have examples of success all over the place, and we're going to do a much better job of taking advantage of where we see success somewhere else in the world and reapply it globally. And so you'll continue to see us figure out how we can leverage these things around the world, share it with our licensed partners and then obviously where it makes sense bring it into The United States as well.

And your next question comes from Lauren Silberman with Deutsche Bank. Please state your question.

Thanks so much. I wanted to just follow-up on the Green Apron service model. Can you help contextualize like anything around the traffic lift that you might be seeing in test stores, whether you're seeing it across dayparts, channels that are more significant? And then my actual question is just on the rewards program, which is always an important to the branch growth. What do you think is missing in the current platform and what are the key elements of the reimagined program of the future? Thank you.

Yes. So look, one of things that's exciting about the Green Apron service model is, I think you might have heard my remarks, I think it was maybe like the first three weeks I was with the company, I had the opportunity to do an earnings call with everybody and one of the things I wanted to do is make sure we won in the morning and one of the things we are seeing right out of the gate is those peaks, are seeing really nice progress and then we also see growth throughout the day. We still have an opportunity in the afternoon and I think you heard me talk about this, we are going figure out how we get the right food and the right drinks so that we are more relevant in that afternoon occasion, but early on, not surprising, we said we wanted to win the morning and we wanted to have a more effective full day of business and that's what we seeing out of the Green Apron service model. So that's where we are. And then to your question on rewards, right now I'd say the rewards program became too much of a one size fits all and a discounting mechanism as opposed to a program that really recognizes people for their loyalty and builds more engagement.

And the feedback we've gotten from customers that are part of it is, if I'm a really big loyal customer, I think there should be more recognition of that and if I'm of a less frequent customer, we should then set up the program so that it fits for them. So you're going to see us really tailoring the system to become more about recognizing the loyalty, recognizing the engagement and then building the brand through this rewards program as opposed to what I think unfortunately became a system of just discounting and a one size fits all. So that's where we're moving towards. And I'm really excited about what that program will entail. And I'm excited that we'll probably be able to show you kind of all the bells and whistles when we're together in February.

Your next question comes from Jon Ivankoe with JPMorgan. Please state your question.

Hi, thank you so much. You have so much color in the prepared remarks. I'm going to have to read the transcript to catch all of it. But oftentimes, and consistency and speed and accuracy are oftentimes enemies of one another. So Brian, I guess, do we handle so much innovation that we talked about in some of your prepared remarks without maybe slowing down or complicating the line complicating operations the coffee house experience?

And are there any solutions around equipment? Or do you have an opportunity to consider splitting the dayparts at Starbucks, maybe having some afternoon innovation that really is available only in the afternoon that allows you to focus specifically on the morning? How are you thinking about, I guess, both this opportunity and risk?

Yes, thanks John for the question. One of the principles for our innovation is it cannot negatively impact our ability to deliver on cafe orders less than four minutes, the drive through less than four minutes and then being on time and accurate with our mobile order. So that is one of the key entry points for any innovation that we have to do. With that said, what I also think we're doing much better job of now is making sure that we understand what are the current approaches for how we make drinks, how we prepare food, so that when we do the innovation, we aren't always having to reinvent the process of how you make the drink. And so I think what you are going to see John is, it's innovation that is unique, it's what customers have been asking for, it's what meets customer needs and then we do it in a way where our partners give us feedback so that we are able to execute it consistently and with the right type of throughput.

And this is why it's so important that we have this approach of the starting five, because this innovation is being kind of co built with our baristas in our stores versus we build it in the support center, we throw it over the wall and we hope that our baristas can figure it out. Like those days are over. The way we're going to do this is we're going to build it together, we're going to build it with the field and our baristas in store at the start of the process. And so it's been very powerful for us and even the protein platform that we're going to be bringing out later this year is a great example of how we've done just that system where we tapped into our baristas to help us fine tune the program so that it's executed in a way that can be a great drink every time on the speed requirements that our customers expect and it sets our partners up to be successful with every drink that they are preparing. So and this is also part of reason why we had to initially set out on menu simplification.

You got to clear out kind of the low hanging things that are frankly a distraction and taking away people's time, so that it frees up space to do meaningful innovation that we know can be executed by our partners in our stores. So the Green Apron service model, hugely important to get that established and set. And we were purposeful to make sure we did that first before we layered in the innovation. But the good news is where we're testing this with the Green Apron service model, we see our ability to then implement the innovation that we're talking about bringing down the pike. So very excited about what's to come.

And I love the fact that these things are built by baristas and the ideas can come from anywhere. And that's the kind of company we need to be.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Andrew Charles with TD Cowen. Please state your question.

Great, thank you. One quick housekeeping first. Just curious, how many mobile order and pay stores are in the portfolio as you go through the process of system optimization? And my real question is that if I go back earlier this month, was an eight ks highlighting a bonus contingent on reducing operating expenses through fiscal twenty twenty seven. Can you help us understand what level of reduction is necessary to hit this?

So to answer your first question, it's roughly like eighty, ninety stores in the mobile order pickup space. And then on your second question, look, incentives are powerful tool and I wanted to have an incentive for the organization to get after the cost side of things and I think the good news is I'm seeing people galvanize around getting after what these incentives have set out to do. And so you'll see how that unfolds over the I think the coming months and coming years. And I think Kathy said it well, we ultimately want a better cost structure so that as we grow, we're happy with how the top line falls to the bottom line.

Thank you. And your next question comes from Christine Cho with Goldman Sachs. Please state your question.

Great. Thank you for taking the question. So, Brian, could you talk a little bit about your decision to expedite the rollout of the Green Apron service model? So were there any notable surprises or key metrics from your earlier tests across the 2,000 stores last quarter that kind of gave you that confidence to proceed with the full rollout in all of The U. S. Stores by the end of the summer as opposed to the one third of the stores by then? Additionally, just your thoughts on how you will measure the ongoing success of the model and how you incorporate some feedback from both customers and partners? Thank you.

Yes, thanks for the question. Look, it really boils down to how we saw the pilots be able to both hire, train, deploy, it was all about getting the right partners in the right place at the right time. And then also when you layered in the technology behind it of the SmartQ, which is all about the ordering algorithm, We saw how that was effective and then not surprising, what we also saw is we saw nice movement in transactions in the day parts that I talked about earlier, both the morning and for the whole day. And then I also think I mentioned this in my remarks, we've gotten clarity on what are the key metrics that ultimately drive performance and that's our growth scorecard that we're going to be adopting going forward. And so you'll see us continue to talk about that ongoing and you're not going to be surprised.

It's about the customer, it's about our being staffed correctly, it's about ensuring that we obviously get the right speed requirements hit. And so when we do those things, we see the outcomes that we want, which is transaction growth, which then ultimately I think is a key indicator of health in the business. So we loved what we saw. Mike and the team demonstrated that we had the ability to scale it. And so we were like, you know what, the time is right, because I'd love the fact that we're going get this Green Apron service model in place before we hit Pumpkin Spice Latte, our big fall holiday season.

Starbucks (SBUX) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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