Starbucks Sees 6 Months of Pain, Based on Its China Experience
- Coffee chain says healthy sales contracted sharply in March
- In China, company expects “full recovery” in next two quarters
A Starbucks Corp. employee wearing protective gloves hands a customer an order from a drive-thru window at a store in Hercules, California, on April 7, 2020.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Starbucks Corp. said that a sharp slowdown from the coronavirus pandemic will worsen before getting better, with financial impact extending as far as September.
The company based its assessment on the tentative recovery in the Chinese market, Starbucks’ most important along with the U.S. The coffee chain went through social distancing and mandatory closures in the Asian nation earlier in the year, giving the company an early glimpse at how the situation would play out in the U.S. and elsewhere.