Comfort-food breakfasts help drive profits at Starbucks
The introduction of new product lines such as comfort-food favourite the bacon buttie have seen Starbucks UK's business go from strength to strength, despite continued tough trading conditions.
The coffee chain has outperformed the rest of the high street, seeing growth for the eighth consecutive quarter. Profits were driven by a new breakfast range - including a bacon buttie - which saw extra morning sales up almost 50% in June. Other successes include the bottled and customisable frappuccino ranges.
Darcy Willson-Rymer, Starbucks UK & Ireland managing director, said: "We are very encouraged by continuing sales growth and how well customers have received our new breakfast range, despite trading conditions in the UK remaining tough, especially with increasing fuel and food bills."
Other factors included a drive for cost efficiencies that has seen road deliveries cut by around 250,000 and the expansion into new outlets including Welcome Break motorway services, which served more than seven million drinks over the past year.
Willson-Rymer added: "We're focused on finding ways to drive efficiencies across the business to protect our customers from rising prices as much as possible. This includes cutting deliveries to our stores by taking around 250,000 truck movements off the roads."
The UK's business results were released as part of the company's global third-quarter results from April to June 2011, which saw total net revenues increase 12% to $2.9b (£1.8b).
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By Emily Manson
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