Last Updated -

May 4, 2026

STARBUCKS

Company Profile and Market Insights

Explore the business model, global strategy, and market performance including insights into its position in China.

Key facts

Founded 1971 • NASDAQ: SBUX • Q2 2026 results (Mar 29, 2026 quarter)

$9.53b

Revenue (Q2 2026)

$510.9m

Net income (Q2 2026)

$0.45

GAAP EPS (Q2 2026)

6.2%

Global comparable sales growth (Q2 2026)

41,129

Stores at quarter end

61%

U.S. & China share of global stores

About

Founded in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Starbucks began as a seller of whole bean coffee, tea, and spices and has since grown into one of the world’s largest coffeehouse companies. The group still anchors its identity in premium coffee, handcrafted beverages, and the idea of the coffeehouse as a place for everyday connection. Starbucks describes its mission as serving the finest coffee while inspiring and nurturing the human spirit, and Seattle remains its global headquarters base.

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Today, Starbucks operates a global network of more than 40,000 stores and serves customers across more than 80 markets through a mix of company-operated and licensed locations. Beyond its coffeehouses, the company also has a meaningful consumer products presence, extending the brand into packaged coffee and related channels. Since September 2024, Starbucks has been led by chairman and chief executive officer Brian Niccol, whose current reset focuses on restoring store experience, service standards, and Starbucks’ traditional “third place” role between home and work.

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The latest structural update came in China, one of Starbucks’ most important long-term markets. In April 2026, Starbucks finalized its joint venture with Boyu Capital for its China retail operations, with Boyu holding 60% and Starbucks retaining 40% while continuing to own and license the brand and intellectual property to the venture. The joint venture oversees about 8,000 coffeehouses in China and reflects Starbucks’ push to combine global brand strength with stronger local execution in its largest growth market outside North America.

Business Model and Market Position

Starbucks runs a hybrid model built on company-operated coffeehouses, licensed stores, and consumer products sold outside its cafés. In fiscal 2025, company-operated stores generated 83% of total net revenue, licensed stores 12%, and the remaining share came mainly from Channel Development. The company reports three operating segments: North America, International, and Channel Development. North America contributed 74% of fiscal 2025 revenue, International 21%, and Channel Development 5%.

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Company-operated stores
These stores remain the core of the Starbucks model because they give the company direct control over pricing, labor, menu mix, store design, and service standards. Starbucks ended fiscal 2025 with 21,514 company-operated stores, and these locations are typically placed in high-traffic, high-visibility areas. The revenue mix inside company-operated stores still shows the brand’s core identity clearly: beverages made up 73% of sales, food 23%, and other items 4%.
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Licensed stores and partner-led expansion
Licensed stores are the second pillar of the model, especially outside North America. Starbucks had 19,476 licensed stores at the end of fiscal 2025. Under this structure, Starbucks sells branded products, supplies, and some equipment to partners and collects royalties on retail sales, while the local operator carries store operating costs and capital spending. That creates lower reported revenue per store for Starbucks, though the company states that licensed stores carry a higher operating margin than company-operated stores. This model gained even more importance in April 2026, when Starbucks finalized its China retail joint venture with Boyu Capital. Boyu now owns 60% of the China retail business, Starbucks retains 40%, and about 8,000 coffeehouses are moving into a licensed structure.
Channel Development and brand monetization outside the café
Starbucks also earns revenue beyond its store base through packaged coffee, single-serve products, ready-to-drink beverages, and foodservice distribution. This business sits in the Channel Development segment and is closely tied to the Global Coffee Alliance with Nestlé. Starbucks also works with PepsiCo, Nestlé, and other partners in ready-to-drink beverages. The result is a multi-channel model where the brand reaches customers in grocery, convenience, and foodservice, not only in Starbucks stores.
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Digital ecosystem and operating discipline
A key advantage in the model is the link between payments, loyalty, and ordering. Starbucks uses Starbucks Card, Rewards, mobile payments, and Mobile Order and Pay to increase visit frequency and move customers across café, pickup, drive-thru, and other channels. At Investor Day 2026, management said Green Apron Service, Smart Queue, AI-supported scheduling and supply chain tools, and Mastrena 3 espresso equipment are central to building a more consistent, coffeehouse-first operating model. That strengthens Starbucks in the parts of competition where speed, convenience, and execution matter as much as menu appeal.

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With 40,990 stores at the end of fiscal 2025, Starbucks has global scale across both company-operated and licensed formats. Its market position rests on brand recognition, dense store coverage, direct control over much of its coffee purchasing, roasting, and packaging, and a business model that spans cafés, licensing, grocery shelves, and ready-to-drink beverages. Starbucks states that customers choose among specialty coffee retailers based on product quality, brand reputation, service, convenience, and price. It also faces direct competition from quick-service restaurants, ready-to-drink beverage brands, and both established and start-up coffee chains in international markets. The current structure makes the positioning clearer: North America remains the revenue base, while international expansion is moving toward a more asset-light model, with China as the clearest example.

Performance in China

China remains one of Starbucks’ most important growth markets. Starbucks generated $3.16 billion in revenue in China in fiscal 2025, and the company ended fiscal 2025 with 8,011 stores in the country. In April 2026, Starbucks finalized its joint venture with Boyu Capital. Boyu now holds 60% of the China retail business, Starbucks retains 40%, and the venture oversees about 8,000 coffeehouses with a shared long-term aspiration to reach 20,000 locations over time.

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Key strategic drivers include:

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Scale with a premium coffeehouse presence
Starbucks combines large physical scale in China with premium brand assets such as the Shanghai Reserve Roastery and the China Coffee Innovation Park. That matters because Starbucks still competes on coffeehouse experience and brand perception, not only on speed and price.
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Deeper localization under the Boyu structure
The new setup is built around stronger local execution. Starbucks said the joint venture is designed to deepen local relevance and elevate the customer experience, while Starbucks continues to operate non-retail assets such as the Kunshan Coffee Innovation Park and the Yunnan Farmer Support Center. This structure keeps the brand and coffee infrastructure under Starbucks while shifting retail operations toward a more localized model.
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Sharper competition and more price pressure
China has become a harder market for Starbucks. Reuters reported that local rivals such as Luckin and Cotti have gained share with lower prices, and that Starbucks’ China market share fell from 34% in 2019 to 14% in 2024, citing Euromonitor. Starbucks also lowered prices on some iced drinks in China by an average of 5 yuan in June 2025, showing a more pragmatic response in categories where price sensitivity is high.

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Overall, Starbucks’ position in China is shifting from a fully owned retail model toward a partnership-led structure that aims to improve local execution, while the brand continues to defend its premium coffeehouse identity against faster and lower-priced local chains.

Growth and Future Prospects

Starbucks enters its next phase with a clearer roadmap than it had a year ago. On April 28, 2026, the company raised its full year fiscal 2026 guidance to at least 5.0% global and U.S. comparable store sales growth, slightly improved non-GAAP operating margin year over year, non-GAAP EPS of $2.25 to $2.45, and roughly 600 to 650 net new coffeehouses. Consolidated revenue is still expected to stay roughly flat in fiscal 2026 because Starbucks China retail shifts into a joint venture licensee structure in the second half of the year, which changes reported revenue mix. At Investor Day in January 2026, Starbucks also laid out its fiscal 2028 framework, including at least 5% consolidated net revenue growth, at least 3% global and U.S. comparable sales growth, more than 2,000 net new stores, and non-GAAP operating margin of 13.5% to 15%.

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Key growth drivers include:

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A stronger U.S. store model
Starbucks is treating store execution as the base for future growth. Green Apron Service is now a core operating model, while Smart Queue, AI-supported scheduling and supply chain tools, and Mastrena 3 espresso equipment are meant to improve speed, consistency, and labor productivity. Starbucks also expects to add more than 25,000 café seats across the U.S. by the end of fiscal 2026, which supports its move back toward a warmer coffeehouse experience.
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Loyalty, menu mix, and higher visit frequency
Starbucks Rewards accounted for nearly 60% of U.S. company-operated revenue in fiscal 2025, which makes loyalty one of the company’s biggest growth levers. Starbucks has refreshed the program with Green, Gold, and Reserve tiers and is pairing that with a broader innovation pipeline across espresso, matcha, chai, Refreshers, cold beverages, and protein-forward food. The strategy is straightforward: protect the morning routine and build a stronger afternoon occasion.
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International expansion through a more asset-light structure
Starbucks ended fiscal 2025 with 40,990 stores worldwide. At Investor Day, management said international coffeehouses are expected to grow at double the rate of North America over time, with long-term ambition to approach 40,000 locations outside the U.S. China is central to that plan. The Boyu joint venture shifts about 8,000 China coffeehouses into a licensed model, with a shared long-term aspiration to reach as many as 20,000 locations. That structure reduces reported retail revenue but fits Starbucks’ margin and expansion priorities outside North America.
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More monetization outside the café
Channel Development remains an important part of the growth story through packaged coffee, ready-to-drink beverages, and the Global Coffee Alliance. Starbucks reported Channel Development revenue growth in fiscal 2025, and the latest fiscal 2026 Q2 release showed another increase in segment revenue, reinforcing the brand’s reach beyond company-operated stores.

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Challenges ahead include:

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Intense competition across channels
Starbucks states that competition is intense across product quality, innovation, service, convenience, and price. That pressure spans coffeehouses, quick-service chains, packaged coffee, and ready-to-drink beverages, which means Starbucks has to improve traffic, menu relevance, and execution at the same time.
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Commodity, tariff, and supply chain pressure
The company flags coffee, dairy, packaging, tariffs, logistics, and broader supply chain disruption as material risks. Those pressures matter more because Starbucks is also investing in labor, store upgrades, and customer experience.
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Labor costs and turnaround execution
Wages and benefits remain two of Starbucks’ largest cost lines, and the company also points to added operational complexity from U.S. union activity. On top of that, the reset still carries restructuring costs into fiscal 2026 as Starbucks completes store closures and support-organization changes tied to Back to Starbucks.
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China transition risk
The Boyu deal gives Starbucks a more local structure in one of its most important growth markets, though it also adds reliance on a joint venture partner and changes the way China retail shows up in reported results. The next test is execution: deeper local relevance, disciplined expansion, and premium brand standards all need to hold together during the shift to a licensed model.

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Overall, Starbucks looks stronger than it did a year ago because the company now has improved fiscal 2026 guidance and a more defined medium-term plan. The upside rests on better store execution, stronger loyalty economics, more productive international licensing, and a cleaner portfolio base. The key question is whether Starbucks lifts traffic, margins, and brand heat at the same time.

This Company Profile was written by Dominik Diemer

Dominik Diemer blends an investor mindset with execution discipline.

He is a SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) and Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) practitioner at DMG MORI Digital, working as a SAFe Release Train Engineer and internal consultant in the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE).

His focus is prioritization, flow, and dependency management that turns strategy into outcomes. With experience across Bertelsmann and the Founders Foundation, he bridges corporate and startup thinking.

He also invests privately in private equity deals, sharpening his view on business models, value drivers, and go-to-market.

StockCounterParts reflects that lens.

Dominik Diemer

Founder of StockCounterparts.com