US branded coffee shop chains such as Starbucks suffer 24% drop in sales in 2020

Sales of US-branded coffee shops such as Starbucks, JDE Peet’s, and Dunkin’ are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels only in 2022, after suffering an estimated 24 percent drop to $36 billion last year.

The coffee shops are expected to climb back to $40 billion this year, below 2019 levels.

According to Allegra World Coffee Portal, a research and consultancy firm, the US coffee shop market is enduring the worst trading environment in memory, with 208 out of a total of 37,189 branded stores closing permanently in 2020.

Allegra Group CEO Jeffrey Young said they expect trading to begin stabilizing from summer 2021 due to mass vaccinations, operators adapting with new trading formats, and a changing political situation.

Young added that it will take several years before coffee shop operators fully readjust to the ‘new normal.’