Starbucks has reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings as sales rose over the festive period.
The coffee giant’s total net revenue rose to $5.37 billion from $4.8 billion in the three months to December 27.
Starbucks’ revenue was boosted by Christmas holiday sales which rose 9%.
Chairman Howard Schultz said the strong results showed the “strength and relevance of the Starbucks brand around the world”.
Starbucks said 1-in-6 American adults received a Starbucks Card over the holiday season.
The company said sales at stores that had been open 13 months or more rose by 8%.
Visits to established stores in the China/Asia Pacific region rose by 4%, but missed the 6.1% growth target analysts had predicted.
During a call with investors, Starbucks CFO Scott Maw said the company had locked in the price for more than 90% of its coffee bean needs in 2016.
Amazon has reported modest holiday profits, but a 15% rise in sales in Q4 2014 has cheered investors.
The online retail giant made a net profit of $214 million for the last three months of 2014, which is a drop of $25 million on the same period in 2013.
However, it was an improvement on the previous quarter, in which Amazon made a net loss of $437 million.
Amazon shares rose by nearly 8% in after-hours trading.
But despite net sales of $89 billion, Amazon made a loss of $241 million for 2014 as a whole.
The company also warned that its finances were “inherently unpredictable”.
It sounded a note of caution for the next few months, saying it could make an operating loss of up to $450 million.
Amazon added that profits may be “materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce”.
The web giant has become notorious for its lackluster earnings, and has tended to focus on expanding its business rather than increasing its profitability.
True to form, Amazon’s boss, Jeff Bezos, emphasized the success of a new service in the company’s results, rather than addressing the company’s figures.
He referred to Amazon’s membership scheme, Amazon Prime, as a “one-of-a-kind, all-you-can-eat, physical-digital hybrid”, adding that its user base grew by 53% last year.
However, other recent projects have not been quite as successful.
Amazon’s foray into the smartphone market, with the shopping-focused Fire phone, has hardly been a bestseller, and there have been reports that the tech firm is winding up its mobile payments service.
Most recently, it was forced to shut down its entry into the nappy market just six weeks after launching the initiative.
Two of the U.S. biggest superstores, Sears and Kmart, are being forced to close over a hundred shops because of poor Christmas sales.
It was reported that between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores will be closed after terrible holiday sales, forcing the retail giant which owns the brands to suffer a massive blow.
Retailers depend on good revenue during the Christmas season to make it through the rest of the year, so when the retailer failed to make a dent this year, there are massive repercussions.
Sears and Kmart have yet to determine which of the more than 4,000 U.S. and Canadian stores will be closed, but there has been a clear shift in where the retailer will devote its resources.
Sears would not discuss how many, if any, jobs would be cut, but it could easily reach the thousand-person mark.
The retailer is moving away from its practice of propping up “marginally performing” stores in hopes of improving their performance. Sears said it will now concentrate on cash-generating stores.
“Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” said CEO Louis D’Ambrosio.
“These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers.”
Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, said that the store closings will generate $140 to $170 million in cash from inventory sales.
The retailer anticipates additional proceeds from the sale or sublease of real estate holdings.
The company, which operates Kmart stores, Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Land’s End, has seen rival department stores like Macy’s Inc. and discounters like Target Corp. steal customers away.
But the economy is put a sustained financial squeeze on its most loyal customers, those in the middle-income bracket.
The retailer had announced numerous closings this year, but this is the largest group of closings to date by far. Hoped for holiday sales to not materialize.
Same-store revenue fell 5.2% to date for the quarter at both Sears and Kmart, the company said Tuesday. That includes the critical holiday shopping period, a time that most retailers depend on for a sales surge that will put them in the black.
Kmart’s 6% decline in revenue at stores open at least a year was blamed on diminished layaways and a drop in clothing and consumer electronics sales.
Sears’ cited lackluster consumer electronics and home appliance sales for its 4.4% drop off. Sears’ clothing sales were flat, while sales of Lands’ End products at Sears stores rose mid-single digits.
Sears Holdings said that the declining sales, ongoing margin pressure and rising expenses pulled its adjusted earnings lower.
The retailer predicts fourth-quarter consolidated adjusted earnings will be less than half the prior-year period’s $933 million. It also anticipates a non-cash charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in the quarter for a valuation allowance on some deferred tax assets.
This figure is a key gauge of a retailer’s health because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.
Sears Holdings said it also plans to lower its fixed costs by $100million to $200million and trim its 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300million from 2011’s $10.2 billion at the third quarter’s end.
