Starbucks' sales are on the upswing again, with the company reporting its first quarterly sales increase in more than a year in the January-March period.
But the coffee giant said Tuesday that its turnaround effort is far from complete, and its fiscal second quarter also saw lagging store traffic and lower-than-expected earnings.
“Some of the investments we’re making now will take some time to create material returns. And some elements of our plan will move faster than others,” Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said in a video message to employees. “We have a lot of work ahead, but we are on the right track and moving quickly.”
The Seattle coffee giant said Tuesday that its quarterly revenue rose 2% to $8.76 billion in the January-March period. That was short of Wall Street’s expectations of $8.83 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Niccol, who joined the struggling company last fall, said Starbucks' efforts are paying off. Service is faster and friendlier, he said, helped by optimizing staffing levels. Simplified menus are also making store operations easier. And new store designs that encourage customers to sit and stay are rolling out in New York and Los Angeles soon.
Niccol said a pilot program to better pace mobile orders has lowered drive-thru wait times and the majority of in-store wait times to less than four minutes. A four-minute service time was one of the first goals Niccol set when he joined Starbucks. Niccol said the program will be rolled out to 3,000 stores by the end of this fiscal year.
Niccol said Starbucks is also boosting staffing and allowing employees to pick up extra shifts at nearby stores. He said in recent years, Starbucks had cut staffing and hoped that automated systems would pick up the slack. But it led to long wait times and employee burnout.
“What we're discovering is the equipment doesn’t solve the customer experience that we need to provide, but rather staffing the stores and deploying with this technology behind it does,” Niccol said Tuesday during a conference call with investors.
But those efforts have been costly. Starbucks said its net income dropped 50% to $384 million in its fiscal second quarter. Adjusted earnings fell nearly 40% to 41 cents per share. That was lower than the 49-cent per share profit Wall Street forecast.
Niccol said Starbucks plans to stick with its promise not to raise prices this fiscal year, despite increased costs from tariffs.
Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Cathy Smith said the company sources coffee from 28 different countries, mostly in Latin America. Starbucks' biggest exposure to tariffs, however, is with merchandise and beverage ingredients sourced from China. Smith said Starbucks is now shifting that production to local suppliers.
Starbucks said its same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, fell 1% globally. That was slightly worse than the 0.8% drop analysts forecast.
While international same-store sales increased 2% — and store traffic improved in China — U.S. same-store sales fell 2%.
But Niccol expressed confidence that improved service and more welcoming stores will turn those numbers around, even if there is an economic downturn.
“It is one of those things that people would say, ‘This is a simple everyday luxury that I can still participate in,’ regardless of what some of the economic challenges are around them,” Niccol said.
Starbucks' shares fell 6% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
A view of the exterior shows a 3D printed Starbucks building Monday, April 28, 2025, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
