LKNCY Stock Recent News

Luckin Coffee hit 10,000 stores in China in June, surpassing Starbucks as the largest coffee chain brand in the country following rapid nationwide expansion this year.

Luckin Coffee has joined forces with Kweichow Moutai, the maker of China's fiery national liquor baijiu, for an unusual offering: alcoholic lattes.

Luckin's beveraged coffee strategy catalyses China's Coffee revolution. Strategic store placement and brand power allows Luckin to benefit from this Coffee surge. Stellar 1H 2023 performance underlines the effectiveness of Luckin Coffee's strategy.

New management has focused the coffee shop chain on profitable growth. Store openings have soared, and the company is starting to venture abroad.

Luckin Coffee opened approximately 1,241 new stores in China during 2Q 2023 and 8 new stores in Singapore by the end of July 2023. As expected, the Company surpassed the 10,000th store milestone on June 5th, 2023 and reached a total store count of 10,592 by the end of 2Q 2023. Luckin Coffee opened on average 14 new stores per day during 2Q 2023, reaching another historical high.

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Luckin Coffee has recovered from its accounting scandal and bankruptcy, achieving profitability in 2022 under new CEO Jinyi Guo. The company is well-positioned to capitalize on China's growing coffee consumption, with over 9,000 stores and a focus on affordability and convenience. Strong Q1 2023 financial performance and aggressive expansion plans make Luckin Coffee an attractive investment opportunity and I rate it as a "Buy".

Luckin Coffee stock price has been a strong underperformer this year even as the company implements its turnaround. It has slipped by more than 33% from its highest level this year, meaning that it is in a bear market.

Luckin Coffee stock has moved sideways recently as the recent bullish momentum faded. The LKNCY shares were trading at $22.54, which was a few points below the year-to-date high of $32.12.

Starbucks and Luckin are leaders with well-regarded brands in an oligopolistic industry where scale matters, and are well-positioned to benefit from the strong growth in demand for high quality experiential coffee. Key drivers and metrics to watch are new store openings and same store sales growth. Both companies aggressively opened stores through the COVID-19 pandemic.