Despite the pandemic, Starbucks continued to pay staff in full and did not take any Government furlough money for its non-franchised stores. The firm saw a limited recovery when stores were allowed to reopen last summer, with UK city centres trading at 34 per cent of levels the previous year, rising to 56 per cent by September 2020.

The company continued paying rents during the entire pandemic period, although it did enter into lease negotiations to agree reductions where possible.

It has also invested heavily to support delivery platforms, including Uber Eats and Just Eat, to tap into the home delivery market alongside an acceleration of a store portfolio review.

It took a £1.8m hit from closing three stores. Starbucks did not make any redundancies during the period and has subsequently hired 400 new staff across the UK.

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