This year, Starbucks plans to invest millions of pounds in upgrading its existing cafes while also opening one hundred new stores across the United Kingdom.
This news comes after the largest coffee chain in the world reported a significant increase in sales in the United Kingdom for 2022, marking a continuation of the chain’s recovery from the pandemic.
In the previous year, the company reportedly considered selling its operations in the United Kingdom.
Over one thousand Starbucks locations can be found in the United Kingdom since the coffee chain first opened there in 1998.
Its expansion into the UK comes despite inflation — the rate at which prices rise — being close to its highest level in nearly four decades, which drives up the cost of ingredients for the company and cuts into its profits.
In addition to this, the company intends to launch an additional three hundred retail outlets across the remaining regions of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Even so, Duncan Moir, who runs the EMEA business for the company, said he was “cautious” about the future of the economy.
He stated that, “Like many other businesses,” Starbucks had issues such as a shortage of HGV drivers, increasing costs from suppliers, and shipping delays.
It is also having trouble dealing with higher energy bills and demands from staff members for higher wages.
Wages in the hospitality industry have been going up all over the UK recently due to a combination of factors, including a general rise in the cost of living and a shortage of available employees. Pret A Manger just recently made the announcement that it will be providing its employees with their third pay increase in the past year.
Starbucks stated that since the pandemic, the habits of its customers have changed. Because of this, the company said that it would try to open more drive-through locations and put money into making its stores more digital.
It was also said that because many people still worked from home, foot traffic in city centers and train stations had been slow to get back to normal, with London being the only place where this wasn’t true.
It was reported that Starbucks was considering selling its UK business the previous year due to the increasing competition it faced from other chains.
The company, which denied ever starting a formal sales process, had also suffered greatly from pandemic restrictions all over the world.
Starbucks stated that the new stores would be a mix of both, with about 70% of its UK locations being franchises and the remaining ones being company-owned.
