- Starbucks reported first-quarter earnings late Tuesday.
- The results beat expectations, although comparable sales still fell.
- New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol has been making changes at the chain.
Starbucks has turned to a new CEO and a new strategy to stop sales tumbling. Although it’s early days, it looks like the first steps have added a small caffeine boost to the company.
Comparable sales fell 4% for the quarter ended December 29. While still a decline, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting a drop of 5.3%. Net revenue reached $9.4 billion, also slightly beating estimates.
Shares of Starbucks rose as much as 4% in after-hours trading on Tuesday on the results.
Starbucks is in the middle of a turnaround effort. Sales have fallen in recent quarters, and store workers have told Business Insider that they are often understaffed and struggle to make drinks and food in a timely manner.
CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company from Chipotle in September, has said that he wants to cut wait times for orders to four minutes or less while also making Starbucks stores places where customers want to hang out.
“While we’re only one quarter into our turnaround, we’re moving quickly to act on the ‘Back to Starbucks’ efforts and we’ve seen a positive response,” Niccol said Tuesday.
The changes so far include limiting bathroom access and free water to paying customers, as well as asking baristas to add handwritten notes to to-go cups.
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