us coffee giant starbucks opened its first signing store in the united states in northeast washington near the campus of gallaudet the worlds only university with an entire curriculum designed to accommodate the deaf and hardofhearing at the store all staff most of them deaf or hardofhearing themselves are required to communicate with customers using sign language the cafe is modeled after a store that opened in kuala lumpur malaysia in 2016 starbucks is written in sign language on an umbrella outside the first us sign language cafe by aishwarya venugopalstarbucks corp on thursday reported a betterthanexpected rise in quarterly sales at established stores as it benefited from higher prices in the united states and a rebound in china sending its shares up nearly 9 percent advt the worlds largest coffee chain is battling intense competition in the united states its largest market from both highend coffee shops and fastfood chains in response the company has been closing underperforming stores while licensing its retail business to nestle for about 7 billion as part of its plan to streamline its operations starbucks focus on cold drinks such as nitro cold coffee and caffeinated fruity beverages in the quarter to lure customers during slow afternoon hours helped it post the best growth in its drinks business for the year the company executives said on a call sales at established us cafes in the fourth quarter grew 4 percent well above analysts expectations while the amount spent by customers on average rose 5 percent helping the company post its best us sales growth in five quarters as we enter fiscal 2019 we are executing against a clear growth agenda with a focus on our longterm growth markets of the us and china chief executive officer kevin johnson said samestore sales in china also rose 2 percent reversing a decline from the third quarter and driving a 3 percent rise in global comparable store sales the coffee chains business in china its fastestgrowing market in recent years slowed significantly last quarter amid fierce competition and stricter regulations on delivery services advt since then the company has partnered with alibaba group holding ltd to deliver its coffee in chinese cities a deal that a company executive said will be rocket fuel for starbucks business in the country while we still have work to do these results provide encouraging evidence that our plan is working johnson said on the call total net revenue rose to 630 billion beating expectations of 627 billion according to ibes data by refinitiv excluding items the company earned 62 cents per share also beating expectations of 60 cents while its adjusted profit forecast for fiscal 2019 was in line with expectations starbucks shares were up 77 percent at 6320 in afterhours trading adding to the years modest growth of 15 percent reuters published on nov 2 2018 at 0211 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment