April 27, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Starbucks Coffee Korea posted a record operating profit last year, industry sources said on March 15.

The 50-50 joint venture between retail conglomerate Shinsegae and the US coffee giant posted 114.4 billion won (US$107 million) in operating profit on 1.2 trillion won in sales last year, Shinsegae said.

It is the first time Starbucks recorded over 100 billion won in operating profits since it opened its first local branch near Ewha Womans University in Seoul in 1999.

The operating profit is up 25.9 percent last year from 85.4 billion won a year earlier, and the sales rose 33.9 percent on-year from 1 trillion won.

The strong figures compare with those of Twosome Place, Angel-in-us Coffee and other local competitors, whose average operating profits and sales are much smaller, and hover between 10 billion won and 20 billion won for operating profits, and 100 billion won and 200 billion won for sales.

Starbucks Korea said it transmitted 63.1 billion won in royalty payments to its US headquarters last year.

Starbucks had 1,140 stores in the country as of the end of last year, the world‘s fourth-largest number of Starbucks stores in relation to population coming only after Canada, the United States and Singapore, according to industry data.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)