The world's largest coffeehouse company, Starbucks, reported a loss per share (EPS) of -$0.80 in the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, after achieving a profit of $1.06 per share in the same quarter of the previous year. While revenue slightly decreased by three percent year over year to $9.1 billion, the profit exceeded analysts' expectations, which were at an EPS of -$0.154. The revenue was just above the forecasts of $9.074 billion that experts had anticipated.

Despite the positive sales development and improvement in EPS, investors reacted with disappointment to the results. The Starbucks stock fell by 0.42 percent to 97.73 US dollars in after-hours trading on NASDAQ. This price correction reflects investors' concerns that the company's operational performance is falling short of expectations.

Throughout the entire fiscal year 2024, Starbucks increased its earnings per share to $3.31 from $3.54 in the previous year, while total revenue slightly rose to $36.2 billion. Despite these positive annual figures, the company faces significant challenges, particularly in its home market of the USA, where transactions declined by ten percent. However, this decline was partially offset by a four percent increase in average spending per purchase.

To combat the current business downturn, new CEO Brian Niccol plans extensive restructuring measures. This includes introducing more comfortable seating and reducing wait times to less than four minutes in US locations. Additionally, there will no longer be surcharges for milk alternatives. Niccol criticized the excessive complexity of drink configurations, which slowed service and increased costs. "One splash, four splashes - I'm still trying to figure out how the whole system works," he stated.

These measures are intended to improve the customer experience and increase efficiency.