管理層發言
Good afternoon, and welcome to Starbucks' Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. I will now turn the call over to Catherine Park, Vice President of Investor Relations. Ms. Park, you may now begin your conference.
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Starbucks' third quarter fiscal year 2026 results. Today's discussion will be led by Brian Niccol, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Cathy Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This conference call will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ from these statements. Any such statements should be considered in conjunction with cautionary statements in our earnings release and risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Starbucks assumes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements or information. Revenue, operating margin and EPS growth metrics referenced on today's call are non-GAAP and measured in constant currency. All other metrics referenced on today's call are non-GAAP. Please refer to the earnings release and our website at investor.starbucks.com to find reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures and supplemental financial information. This conference call is being webcast, and an archive of the webcast will be available on our website through Friday, September 11, 2026. And for your calendar planning purposes, please note that our fourth quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings conference call is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 29, 2026. I'll now turn the call over to Brian.
Good afternoon, and thanks for joining. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the devastating earthquake in Japan. We're grateful that all our partners are safe, and our thoughts are with all those affected. For more than 30 years, we've been part of communities across Japan, and we'll be there to support them as they recover. So now turning to our results for the quarter. In Q3, we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of positive global comps and our second consecutive quarter of consolidated margin growth. It's clear proof that our Back to Starbucks plan is working. Starbucks' mission was built on a simple belief, an extraordinary cup of coffee, human connection and a great customer experience matter. Our strong third quarter proves this enduring truth delivers enduring results. We bring this truth to life in our coffee houses every day through an experience that engages the senses, celebrates the craft of coffee and brings people together. It's in the aroma of fresh ground coffee that greets you at the door, the symphony of sounds of a drink being handcrafted, the pride our partners have when they put on the green apron. It's the moment of connection between a barista and a customer. It's the smile on their face after that first sip and the feeling of belonging that follows. It's about every detail coming together to create an experience that feels distinctly Starbucks. That's the magic of the third place. It's a human need only we can fulfill and a community only Starbucks can create. We're reclaiming it, one customer, one cup, one coffee house at a time, and we're on our way to becoming the world's greatest customer service company. This is the Starbucks that's taking shape, one that's true to itself, built to perform consistently year after year. And our third quarter results and performance this year give us the confidence to raise our full year 2026 guidance. Let's start with the financial highlights. In Q3, consolidated net revenues were $9.3 billion, led by sequentially improving global comp growth of 7.9%. Consolidated operating margin expanded 430 basis points year-over-year to 14.4% and earnings per share grew 70% year-over-year to $0.85. North America continued to lead our performance in the quarter. Company-operated comparable sales increased 8.1% and licensed coffeehouse net revenues were roughly flat despite net closures in the quarter. We also reached a milestone with North America operating margin growing year-over-year for the first time since Q1 fiscal 2024. This was driven by operational improvements across both our company-operated and licensed businesses. Breaking down our performance further, in the U.S., comps were up 7.9%, driven by balanced transaction and ticket growth. And in Canada, comps were even stronger. International company-operated comparable sales grew 5.7%, driven by continued strength in Japan and the U.K. International licensed store revenues grew year-over-year. And in total, our international business posted its sixth consecutive quarter of positive system-wide comps, underscoring our global relevance and the power of our diversified portfolio across 90 markets. Our operational discipline and cost savings work are making us a more focused, nimble company that prioritizes better, spends smarter and invests with intent. We're now seeing the benefits of that work. And as our revenues grow, more is flowing through to earnings. We said we would drive sales growth first and earnings would follow. Our results show we're walking the talk. We're on the right path, and we remain ahead of schedule. Now let me turn to the progress we've made across the business driven by our Back to Starbucks plan. First, we continue to fine-tune our Coffee House operations to sustain momentum and perform with more consistency at scale. This August marks one year since we launched Green Apron Service and it has become the operating foundation of Back to Starbucks. We gave ownership and accountability back to Coffee House leaders. We invested in the tools, hours, standards and coaching our partners need to deliver with consistency, and we made it clear what great looks like. Our focus on Green Apron Service has been a real game changer for our business. It's given us a platform to fix the operational issues we faced. It's helped us reset expectations, refocus on the customer and remove barriers to growth. That progress is evident in our simplified Grow coffeehouse reporting and ranking system. Across North America, two-thirds of our company-operated coffee houses are now at four or more shots, up more than five points quarter-over-quarter and more than 40 points since it launched last October. We're also getting sharper in how our coffee houses run. Smart Queue is getting smarter as we optimize for greater accuracy and speed. On average, we achieved target service times across every access point in Q3, even with transaction growth across dayparts. Our supply chain work is creating a better and more predictable experience for our customers. More Coffee House ownership, better customer-focused ordering guidance, improved reporting and expanded daily delivery are all working together to get the right product to the right coffee house at the right time. It's improving our food availability rate, which is close to 99% today. That's about 10 points better than it was just a year ago. Our Coffee House leadership is more stable, too. In the third quarter, the percentage of North America Coffee House leaders who have been enrolled for two years or more improved by about seven points year-over-year. That's important because we've seen Coffee House leader stability is highly correlated to store performance. Internal hiring for retail leadership, including Coffee House coaches, is up year-over-year as well. That creates more development pathways for partners and gives our Coffee House teams the continuity they need to execute consistently. We also built on our long-standing efforts to ensure partner share in our success, launching the Best of Starbucks Reward at the close of the quarter. This new incentive allows eligible Green Apron partners the opportunity to earn up to $300 per quarter for meeting Coffee House performance goals across sales, operations and customer service. Looking forward, we're focused on delivering exceptional service with speed. When we get it right, customers feel it in their experience. We earn trust with every cup served, and we become more than just a great coffee company. We become the place where people connect and the gold standard for customer service. Second, our brand continues to become more visible, relevant and loved. Brand affinity, consideration and purchase intent were all at five-year highs in the quarter, and customer connection improved significantly year-over-year. Customers continue to see worth and value in their Starbucks purchase, and we see it in how they behave. Sales growth in Q3 was broad-based across generations and income groups and across both Starbucks Rewards members and nonmembers, even with the continued pressure on U.S. consumer sentiment. Marketing and innovation helped drive that resilience. We've built a strong innovation pipeline anchored in customer rituals and amplified by cultural moments. Refreshers remained a standout platform for us in Q3, delivering double-digit year-over-year revenue growth in the U.S. Customizable energy refreshers, Blue Coconut and Mango, kept customers engaged, expanded the platform to new occasions and gave them more reasons to visit throughout the day. Our marketing team has done a great job putting us back in front of culture from Coachella and Soccer Captain Cup Sleeves to a Miffy merch drop and our viral Pink Bearista. We're creating moments that people notice, talk about and want to be a part of. Starbucks Rewards is reinforcing the daily ritual and building more connection with customers. We now have 35.8 million 90-day active members in the U.S. It's only been four months since we launched our new program, and we're already seeing members leveling up from Green to Gold and Gold to Reserve. The program also gives us more ways to directly engage with customers and turn a visit into a routine. Free Mod Monday is a great example. One in three members who tried a new modification through this benefit reordered it in subsequent weeks. In the U.S., we also provided Starbucks Rewards members early access to our S'mores coffee lineup, highlighting the value of being a member. S'mores beverages are resonating particularly well with Gen Z customers and are tracking as our strongest summer coffee limited-time offering launch in the past several years. Taken together, our brand flywheel is working. We're creating experiences people are excited about, turning engagement into rituals and deepening customer connection that fuels long-term growth. Third, we continue to improve the third place experience with coffee house uplifts, adding back warmth, texture and great seats at a fraction of the cost of earlier remodels. In Q3, we surpassed 1,000 total uplifts across North America, reaching our fiscal 2026 goal ahead of plan. Early data from uplifted coffee houses show transaction lift across access points, dayparts, formats and customer segments. In short, we like what we're seeing, and they're proving to be a strong brand halo. That's why we're accelerating our pace with the intention of completing at least 1,500 uplifts by fiscal year-end 2026 and accelerating further in fiscal 2027. Turning to international. We continue to position Starbucks as a world-class global licensor. With our China business now operating under the new joint venture, about 90% of our international portfolio is now managed through a license structure. This gives us a capital-light model that lets us scale our brand with discipline through strong local partnerships. We're taking learnings from our North America license business to evolve how our international model works. These changes allow us to better reinforce brand standards, financial discipline and shared accountability through our growth system and create a more consistent, unified performance management lens across our coffee house portfolio. We're also reshaping our international support organization around our vision. We see international as a capital-efficient way to build our brand around the world, and we're building the structure to support that opportunity and help our licensed business partners grow with us. Looking ahead, as the business continues to strengthen, we have a clear view of where we're performing well, where we can move even faster and where there are outliers that require our focus. In our coffee houses, we'll keep raising the bar by unlocking more throughput, driving a better customer experience and supporting our Green Apron partners who bring it to life. Across branded menu, we will keep showing up in ways that are true to Starbucks. We're finishing the summer season with a strong menu lineup that includes blended refreshers, our legendary Unicorn Frappuccino and new orange cream beverages, and we'll begin testing sparkling beverages in select markets. We'll mark the return of fall with our iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte and kick off the holidays with our fan favorite Peppermint Mocha. And we'll keep driving fandom with a steady pace of buzzworthy merch launches and continued innovation season after season. In supply chain, we will continue scaling daily delivery and testing a 24-hour operating clock to improve speed, availability and reliability. And in technology, fiscal 2027 will be an important modernization year with new inventory ordering, staffing and scheduling and point-of-sale systems to improve execution and make our coffee houses easier to run. Finally, we're applying more discipline to how we grow our global footprint. We remain excited about the white space for new coffee houses in the U.S. and around the world, and we're making sure every new coffee house we open earns its place. We've developed and globally tested new coffee house prototypes that meet our expectations for accelerating international unit growth, and we're applying those learnings to shape our development approach in the U.S. As a result, the composition of U.S. and international new store growth may evolve as we build a stronger U.S. development pipeline and redirect near-term resources to accelerate the pace of our uplift program, where results are already tangible. We remain confident in our global growth ambitions and our long-term opportunity in North America. While net new company-operated unit growth in North America may remain modest through fiscal 2027, we expect international to be a meaningful contributor to unit growth. To conclude, our Back to Starbucks plan was built on the belief that human connection and a great customer experience win the day, every day. And our Q3 results prove they do. Our investments are paying off. More customers are choosing Starbucks more often. Partners are creating more moments of connection. Our brand is more visible, relevant and loved. Our coffee houses are more warm and welcoming, and our business is delivering on its commitments. I want to thank our partners around the world. Your craft, care and focus are making our coffee houses better every day. Customers feel it, and it is showing up in our results. We still have work to do, but the opportunity is significant and clear. We're focused on finishing the fiscal year strong, and we will be relentless in our efforts to reclaim the third place, become the world's greatest customer service company and deliver durable long-term growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Cathy.
Thank you, Brian, and thank you all for joining today. Our third quarter results demonstrate the progress we continue to make on both the top and bottom line and the growing durability of our performance. I want to thank our partners across our coffee houses, supply chain and support centers whose execution is helping us advance our Back to Starbucks plan and reclaim the third place. Let me now take you through our Q3 results, and then I'll share how we're thinking about the balance of the year. Consolidated net revenues were $9.3 billion, down 1% from the prior year, largely driven by the transition of the China retail business to our new joint venture license structure in the third quarter. Global comps grew 7.9%, improving sequentially from the second quarter and led by transaction growth of more than 4%. Our North America segment revenues were $7.4 billion with comparable store sales up 8.1%. And in the U.S., comps grew 7.9%, led by transactions up 4.2% and average ticket up 3.6%. We're pleased with the healthy composition of transaction and ticket growth, which we believe reflects the strengthening fundamentals of our business. As Brian mentioned, our growth was broad-based across dayparts, income levels and access points. Average ticket increases were led by sustained strength in our delivery business as well as innovation-led modifications and attach. In fact, food attach reached a Q3 record across our U.S. company-operated business with growth across all dayparts and the strongest gains in the afternoon. Pricing contributed less than 1 point of ticket growth in the quarter. Ninety-day active Starbucks Rewards members grew both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year to 35.8 million. Our new program is exceeding our expectations on multiple fronts, including engagement and average stored-value card reload amounts, which continue to grow. Overall, our North America store base was 18,371 coffee houses at the end of the quarter. This included 27 net new openings across our company-operated business and 41 net closures within our licensed portfolio. North America licensed revenues were roughly flat year-over-year, reflecting these net store closures in the quarter. U.S. licensed coffee houses delivered another quarter of positive system-wide comps, led by continued strength in our travel and leisure segments. Moving to international. Company-operated comparable store sales grew 5.7%, led by a healthy mix of ticket and transactions. Japan, now our largest international company-operated market, was a key driver of that strength, delivering compelling innovation tied to its 30th anniversary celebration and supported by both nostalgic beverages and effective marketing. Performance was also helped by a favorable prior year comparison. The segment delivered $1.3 billion of Q3 net revenues, positive system-wide comps across a diversified portfolio and $300.9 million of Q3 operating income. Beginning this quarter, Starbucks retail operations in China were deconsolidated from our financials and reported as a licensed business with our 40% joint venture economics reflected as part of income from equity investees. This transition is the main driver of the year-over-year changes in our International segment reporting. To help with your models, here are a few data points detailing China's contribution to our Q3 International segment P&L and our current view of how the economics to Starbucks will evolve. In the third quarter, we reported $53 million of net revenues attributable to China within our international P&L and operating margin above 100%, reflecting the structure's margin-accretive nature. As the joint venture moves beyond this transitional period and scales, we expect our economics to build over time. The operating landscape in China continues to evolve and the end-market team is working to drive higher quality growth and local relevance. It is still early, but we remain confident in the joint venture's ability to reinvigorate sustainable growth in China and to reach up to 20,000 coffee houses over time. Our international portfolio ended the quarter at 22,933 coffee houses, including 189 net new openings in the quarter. In Channel Development, net revenues grew 22% year-over-year to $587.9 million, helped by coffee inflation. Our multi-serve refresher concentrate and sweet cream are generating strong engagement with trial and repeat rates more than twice what we typically see in the business. In North America, we also recently launched a zero-sugar option to extend our Starbucks Doubleshot Energy beverage platform. We continue to work with our partners to innovate and extend our brand to more customers and more places around the world. Moving to margin. Our third quarter consolidated operating margin was 14.4%, expanding approximately 430 basis points from the prior year, our second consecutive quarter of consolidated margin expansion. This was largely driven by sales leverage, supported by our cost savings efforts as well as lower inflation paired with reciprocal tariff refunds. The refunds we received in Q3 largely offset related tariffs incurred in the first three quarters of fiscal 2026. As such, we believe the year-to-date view provides a more normalized perspective. More precisely, in the quarter, our consolidated product and distribution costs were 30.3% as a percentage of net revenues. We believe the better proxy for a more normalized Q3 COGS rate is the year-to-date metric of 32.3%. Crucially, both consolidated and North America operating margins expanded year-over-year even without the impact of tariff refunds, underscoring the strengthening fundamentals of our operating model. In North America, our third quarter operating margin expanded approximately 280 basis points year-over-year. When excluding the impact of tariff refunds, Q3 North America margin improved more than 100 basis points year-over-year. Stronger sales leverage, operational focus and cost savings are helping offset our investments in Green Apron Service and menu innovation. As we expected, coffee remained a cost headwind in the quarter, but the impact was lower than the first two quarters of the fiscal year. Consolidated G&A decreased by approximately 20% in the quarter, driven by a combination of our cost savings efforts, deconsolidation of our China business and lapping expenses related to our leadership experience in fiscal 2025. Our effective tax rate of 21.8% moderated versus the prior year, reflecting favorable updates to full year tax estimates and a cumulative catch-up adjustment in the quarter. All in, Q3 earnings per share grew approximately 70% year-over-year to $0.85, a meaningful step towards earnings recovery. We also made solid progress on our balance sheet during the quarter. Using a portion of the China transaction proceeds, we repaid approximately $1.8 billion of our debt and further reduced our leverage to 2.9x, supporting our investment-grade profile and strengthening our financial flexibility. This allows us to continue investing in the business, maintain our competitive dividend and create longer-term value for shareholders. Turning to our outlook. We believe our top line momentum is becoming more durable. Margin expansion is taking hold and our balance sheet is stronger. While the current operating environment remains dynamic, these factors support our confidence in the trajectory of our business. As a result, we are raising our guidance for fiscal year 2026. With one quarter left in the year, we expect our fourth quarter comp growth in the U.S. to be 6.5% or better. We are encouraged by our strong start to the quarter, but also recognize the year-over-year traffic comparisons we will lap and the continued variability in the broader consumer landscape. This implies full fiscal year 2026 U.S. comp growth of a little more than 6% and global comp growth nearing 6%. We expect full fiscal year 2026 consolidated net revenues to be flat to slightly higher year-over-year as we continue to account for the impact of our new China structure. We're also raising our full fiscal year 2026 consolidated margin guidance to greater than 11%. We expect the same fundamental drivers that supported margin expansion in Q3 to continue in Q4. Sales leverage, disciplined execution and continued progress against our cost savings initiatives should help offset investments in our Back to Starbucks priorities, particularly as we anniversary the launch of Green Apron Service in August. In coffee, we expect coffee price pressures to continue easing in Q4 and become largely immaterial to the year-over-year margin comparisons. It is also worth noting that our channel development revenues can move with coffee price trends given the structure of our CPG business. We remain on track with our $2 billion cost savings plan. As a reminder, these are gross savings, which we expect to realize through fiscal 2028 and are balanced across product and distribution costs, OpEx and G&A. This year, the impact of our efforts are most visible in G&A and our other operating expenses line. We continue to expect our fiscal 2026 consolidated G&A dollars to run below fiscal 2023 levels. For tax, we assume our effective tax rate in Q4 returns to a more normal level in the mid-20s. Putting this all together, we are raising our EPS guidance at both ends of the range to between $2.55 and $2.65. Finally, from a unit count perspective, our expectation for approximately 600 to 650 net new coffee house openings in fiscal 2026 remains unchanged. This continues to be supported by strong contribution from our international business. And in North America, while overall performance has strengthened, we are gaining deeper visibility into some underperforming coffee houses, which could result in some closures. As always, we will continue to assess our North America portfolio to ensure we have a healthy foundation of coffee houses on which to build for the future, a future which we believe has a long runway of new coffee house growth in both North America and around the world. In conclusion, we are encouraged by the momentum we are building through continued work on our Back to Starbucks plan. Our third quarter results validate our belief that human connection and a great customer experience can drive durable, profitable growth. We still have more to do. We're moving at pace, and we're focused on the work ahead. And with that, we are now ready to take your questions.
分析師問答
Congratulations on further progress on the plan here. Brian, my question relates to a question I've been getting from a lot of investors, which is how long can you keep up the same-store sales momentum that you're seeing currently? And I know the long-term plan calls for 3% annually, but I suspect you're aiming for something higher. So I guess, could you just give us your thoughts on where you are in the journey of recovering the sales volumes? And what are the building blocks to keep this type of momentum or something above the 3% level going for the next few years?
Yes. Thanks, David. To answer your question on the momentum, the good news for us is I think this is driven by just better operating practices. Thinking about the Green Apron Service model, meaning we now, I think, are staffed better. We think we have the right routines, the right coaching taking place so that we're giving better customer experiences for all of our customers every single day. And if you look at where the business was, there's still lots of space to add more transactions, both in the morning and in the afternoon. And we've made tremendous progress in both dayparts, but there still is a lot of room for growth. And then as you think about the innovation that we brought out, our marketing team, I think, has done a great job on bringing out relevant innovation, both in drinks, food and also merchandise. I think we're just getting started on that front as well. And so we are operating better on a day-to-day basis. And I think our customers are seeing it, feeling it, experiencing it. And our partners, I think, are becoming more and more consistent with the ability to execute the Green Apron Service experience. I just know the business has more room for growth. When you talk to the customers that have experienced it, they're responding positively. And I still think there is more to come on the innovation side of things, whether it's through our digital platforms or more of the traditional work that we've done on menu and marketing.
Congrats on these results. So just really a follow-up on the daypart point that you were just making. I wonder how has the daypart growth been if you had to separate morning versus the afternoon, what's happened in the last year? And then also how you're thinking about it over the next year and maybe beyond? You've talked about the afternoon daypart being the next big opportunity. I would imagine maybe some of the throughput stuff has been an outsized benefit to the more compressed morning daypart. So any sort of ways that you're thinking about the opportunities on both those sides? And if you see maybe the baton being passed to the afternoon in terms of outsized growth and when?
Thanks, David. From the beginning of the Back to Starbucks strategy, we wanted to win the morning and then start creating the afternoon daypart. Our partners in our stores have done just that. They have done a great job of executing great staffing, great deployment and ultimately great experiences in the morning so that we win that ritual every morning. In absolute transactions, the morning daypart has been our biggest winner. As you move through the day, we continue to see transaction growth just not quite at the same level as the morning. I think that's going to be a combination of two things to get the afternoon going as well: a combination of beverage and food and also just getting better at our routines in the afternoon. So we're doing exactly what we set out to do from a strategy standpoint: win the morning, create the afternoon and break down any barriers preventing us from getting to great throughput in all the access modes, whether it's drive-thru, cafe, mobile order pickup or delivery. We're seeing great progress in all those access points and really throughout the day with the biggest wins coming in the morning, which is where we had the biggest bottleneck initially.
Maybe I'll add on, David, really quickly. We mentioned it in the prepared remarks, but Refreshers had a really great quarter, which we would expect, but that gives us a great occasion for that afternoon beverage. We're seeing people take no-caffeine options oftentimes in the afternoon. We're still seeing the base refresher with that minimal amount of caffeine. And then we're now starting to see some routinization in the morning with Refreshers that have extra caffeine or energy. I say that because that gives us a great platform along with our Matcha menu for the afternoon. Then you add on some of the tests we've been doing in food like the wraps, which starts to give us a really great occasion to expand that afternoon daypart.
Brian, I'm curious what you make of what is going on in the coffee category where investors may not be thinking about just burger, chicken and pizza. Just it appears the category is just not zero-sum in nature. And just related to that, you guys talked about the opportunity in 2027 to slow development, step-up closures of underperforming stores. And I'm curious kind of why now at a time when the tide is clearly being lifted for Starbucks.
First, really excited about the momentum we have in the business. Even as you look at how we exited the quarter, the thing that was great to see is the business kind of picked up yet again. So we're seeing really good things happen with the Starbucks business and the coffee category. Regarding new units, unfortunately we did not have a great development strategy two to three years ago. We either did difficult remodels on stores or potentially put the wrong store in the wrong place. We're cleaning that up. The good news is as the business responds, it becomes clearer where the true problem stores are. We're going to fix them and then build the pipeline with the right stores in the right locations. As you mentioned, the category is strong, the Starbucks business is strong, so when we open new stores, they'll be strong openings. That's the practice, and as a result Starbucks will be in a much stronger position going forward.
I guess maybe a similar bent. One is on Refreshers, standout platform, but it seems like everybody has Refreshers. So maybe you could talk a little bit about what customers are telling you about what distinguishes Starbucks and whether when other large QSRs, for example, not beverage specialists, advertise, if that creates a halo for you? And I guess the follow-on is, does that change as you pivot your growth strategy? I think very explicitly, you've talked about markets where maybe there are other coffee specialists, but Starbucks doesn't have a location. Does this competitive dynamic shift at all?
You're right that others have entered the Refreshers space. The good news is we're the original for Refreshers, and our craft, flavors and customization differentiate our platform. Growth has been excellent. We had gotten a bit complacent on the platform in the past, and now we are reinvigorating it and seeing a really positive response. Customers use Refreshers in different ways — fully decaffeinated or fully boosted — for different occasions, morning or afternoon, across ages. We're testing sparkling Refreshers, calling them Spritzers, in a couple of markets and we recently added blended Refreshers. Our point of difference is the craft and customization we provide and the delicious, relevant flavors. Even with increased activity in the space, Refreshers continued to perform strongly this quarter. If you're the category leader and others advertise in the space while you continue to execute well, you can get more than your fair share. That's our aim. Regarding the overall category, there's a trend toward cold beverages, but they're still executed with coffee, espresso and the customization expected from coffee drinks. Refreshers play a strong role from morning to afternoon and will continue to be a tool as we expand the afternoon daypart.
I'm curious how much you think kind of the uplifts are helping you right now in the U.S.? And I guess, how you're measuring the success of that on a per store basis? And I guess just relatedly, when you talk about maybe some more closures, what are some of the characteristics of those stores?
Uplifts have been terrific performers. We're seeing the business respond, which has been our hypothesis: they benefit all dayparts and access points because people feel better about visiting an uplifted coffee house. We're seeing transaction increases and a positive brand perception halo. We'll accelerate the uplift program to get more coffee houses to Starbucks standard. Uplifts also create pride among partners. On closures, it's about performance and location and sometimes whether the asset is suitable for remodeling versus building new. It's not a question of whether Starbucks can work in the trade area, but whether this is the right representation of Starbucks and whether the economics are appropriate. If the answers are no, we'll address the problem and build the right store in that trade area. This is just good hygiene.
I'll add a little more on uplifts for color. If you think back a quarter, we had a little over 300 uplifted coffee houses. We did north of 650 this quarter, so we have an early population to analyze. Across all formats, channels, dayparts and urbanities, both cafes and drive-thrus, we're seeing a positive halo. Our brand health metrics are at five-year highs, and uplifts contribute to that. They continue to be a very good return on investment. The team is doing a great job completing uplifts overnight so we don't change the routine for our customers. The average investment is about $150,000, making them a strong return.
So what's your assessment on the same-store sales and operational performance of your stores versus those of the licensed stores in North America? And so what are some of the actions within your control to close that gap?
You're asking about company store comps versus licensed store comps and what differences we see. The good news is licensed stores had a great quarter too, primarily led by travel. We're putting the same rigor in place across licensed stores that we have in company stores: the Grow Report, adjusted for licensing, and specificity around what the Starbucks experience expectations are. Our goal is there should be no real difference between a Starbucks experience at a company-owned store and a licensed store. We're seeing more and more examples where that's true and fewer examples of discrepancies. Comp performance in licensed stores was very good, and we continue to make progress to ensure the Starbucks experience is consistent regardless of ownership.
So first, a housekeeping question on the impact of coffee house initiatives like extended hours, closed stores and delivery and how these factored into the Q3 comp relative to your brand initiatives? And then second question, unrelated on tariff refunds and whether you're anticipating more in Q4 and to what extent the guide contemplates anything there?
Let me start with the first one. Regarding the impacts of things like extended hours, the impact was actually very limited. Of the 7.9% comp, about half or a little less than half was due to closures, sales transfer and delivery growth. The rest was store performance and menu innovation. The hours of operation piece was just a couple of basis points, so very small. On refunds and whether we're anticipating more in Q4: we saw operating income margin expansion in the quarter even without the tariff refund. As we shared, the year-to-date performance is probably the right way to look at our product and distribution costs because that effectively nets the impact of increased tariffs and refunds. We believe we've largely received the refunds we're entitled to at this point, so anchoring to the year-to-date performance is appropriate.
First, a question, and then a quick follow-up. First on the question, in terms of Green Apron Service, did we absolutely nail it in terms of labor hours in terms of not only your current traffic, but potentially increased traffic going forward? In other words, could we expect the number of labor hours to stay relatively steady or perhaps have some efficiency opportunity as traffic has grown? And then secondly, Brian, I think I heard in your prepared remarks, 24-hour operating model. Does that mean some Starbucks stores could actually be open 24 hours? And I guess, I know that's not an overnight decision. So over time, how much do you think kind of an average extended hours could potentially mean to the Starbucks U.S. system when fully rolled out and optimized?
Our operators are doing a great job managing labor schedules to provide great experiences for the business we're receiving. I still think there is opportunity to get even more growth in the morning and afternoon. In the morning, you could see more efficiency gains out of the labor we have at peak. As we move through the day, we'll see similar opportunities. Eventually we'll earn our way into having the additional hours necessary to match business growth. The team has done a great job managing labor so we meet demand and don't cap growth. We still see room for growth in morning, drive-thru and mobile order pickup. Regarding the 24-hour comment, I was referring to supply chain: we want a system that can create pull-through and replenish stores within 24 hours so we're never out of stock. That allows us to shrink back-of-house inventory and have the right inventory at the right location at the right time, improving efficiency. We do have a handful of stores open 24 hours, but supply chain optimization is the focus rather than store hours expansion today. If demand proves out, more 24-hour stores could make sense, but that's not the current focus.
Congratulations on continued momentum. Just curious what marketing spend looked like year-over-year. And as you're thinking about the sort of shift to more being part of the conversation and part of culture, do you think there's still room from here for advertising to grow in terms of a percent of sales investment and/or continuing to optimize more like the media mix side of things?
The team has done a great job with the marketing budget. We spend a little more than 2% of sales on marketing. As the business grows, the budget will continue to grow; we're not capping that spending. We're not seeing diminishing returns from our spending. The marketing team is doing a great job investing in places where we can drive transactions, build the brand and deepen loyalty. Communication has been strong and some of the best moments the brand has had in a long time. The budget will grow with the business, and the team will be accountable for returns. I'm excited about the plans for the balance of the year and for 2027.
I just wanted to ask a little bit about digital menu boards. Where does the penetration stand today? And what are you seeing specifically on the afternoon daypart performance in stores that have them? And what can the menu board allow you to do for the afternoon?
By September we'll be in roughly 80% to 90% of our stores with digital menu boards. We're dayparting the menu boards, which helps build the afternoon daypart by better merchandising afternoon offerings. The team continues to fine-tune how we use digital boards to drive daypart communication. Every uplift includes digital menu boards, and the marketing team is taking advantage of the technology to daypart and promote appropriate offerings. This will be even more powerful once the entire system is on digital menu boards.
Brian, I just want to follow up on the remodels, obviously tracking ahead of schedule in '26, and you pointed to acceleration in '27. Just trying to get a sense of where the limit on the remodels you guys can do? Any sense on when that could be completed across the whole system and just what the potential acceleration could be in '27?
Our goal is to get uplifts done as fast as we can while balancing other investments. You'll see a meaningful step-up from '26 to '27. We're building capability to do more than we did this year and will scale up carefully; I don't want to go so fast that we sacrifice quality. We'll move quickly and execute with excellence. Expect a meaningful step-up in '27 and we'll see how fast we can go from there.
I had a question on delivery. So as that scales at a higher penetration rate, how should we think about incrementality and the trade-off versus in-store visits? And is there any color you could share around channel margin implications, that would be great.
Right now, there's no trade-off on margins and we have yet to see meaningful cannibalization from the delivery channel. We're excited about it. Soon we'll have delivery in our app with a white-label partner, which will make the platform more attractive because then customers will be able to earn rewards or Stars as part of the program. Today, delivery doesn't participate in Stars. We think there's still a lot of upside and currently no margin trade-off.
And ladies and gentlemen, that was our last question. I will now turn the call over to Brian Niccol for closing remarks.
All right. Well, thank you, and thanks, everybody, for taking the time. Very proud of our results on Q3. When we put together the Back to Starbucks strategy, it was built on the simple founding idea of Starbucks: extraordinary coffee, terrific human connection and an experience people want to return to. We're proving that and the Back to Starbucks program can deliver results in a meaningful way. We're building the Starbucks we believe we should be: built for performance, built for consistency of that performance. We've got a clear plan, the team is focused and we have tremendous opportunity in front of us. I'm excited about what's next and where we grow from here because the foundational elements we put in place set the Back to Starbucks plan up for enduring performance so that quarter after quarter we can talk about the great customer experiences and the results that come with it. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day and I look forward to continuing to talk business with each and every one of you. Take care.
This concludes Starbucks' Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Conference Call. You may now disconnect.