On November 3, Luckin Coffee (OTC: LKNCY, hereinafter referred to as the "Company" or "Luckin") announced its third quarter financial report for 2026. The company continued to promote its high-quality scale growth strategy and achieved positive results, with solid and steady business growth and a clearer profit improvement trend. The company's total net income in the third quarter was 17.891 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.0%. Profitability levels further improved this quarter, with non-GAAP net profit reaching 2.145 billion yuan, a record high in a single quarter; GAAP operating profit reaching 2.756 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.1%; operating profit margin was 15.4%, a year-on-year increase of 3.8 percentage points. On the demand side, customer consumption continued to show resilience, with the average number of monthly transaction customers and per capita cup volume both reaching new highs. The average number of monthly transaction customers increased by 9.6% year-on-year to 123 million. As of the end of the third quarter, the total number of stores worldwide reached 38,909, and the cumulative number of transaction customers exceeded 520 million. At the same time, based on confidence in the company's long-term development prospects and in order to better reward shareholders, with the approval of the board of directors, the company launched a new one-year share repurchase plan totaling US$500 million, which fully reflects the company's firm confidence in long-term value.
In the third quarter, the company's self-operated store revenue was 12.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%. In the third quarter of last year, driven by the high subsidies in the takeout war, the volume of takeout cups and the overall single cup price increased, forming a high base. Since the beginning of this year, subsidies for food delivery platforms have shrunk rapidly, and same-store sales of self-operated stores were greatly affected in the third quarter, falling 11.1% year-on-year. However, the same-store decline has narrowed month by month since July this year, and the improvement trend continues to deepen. What is more noteworthy is that as the proportion of takeaways and distribution costs have dropped significantly, the profitability of self-operated stores has continued to improve. In the third quarter, the operating profit of self-operated stores at the store level was 3.019 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.5%; the operating profit margin at the store level was 23.3%, which has basically returned to the level before high subsidies for takeout platforms. In addition, revenue from joint-venture stores in the third quarter was 4.243 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%. GMV increased by 19.7% year-on-year to RMB 20.734 billion. These operating results further validate Luckin’s scale growth model and enhance the company’s confidence in its long-term development prospects.
In terms of stores, in order to meet the growing market demand, the company continues to maintain a competitive and industry-leading store opening pace to further consolidate and expand its industry-leading position. In the third quarter, there were a net increase of 2,599 stores, including a net increase of 2,543 in China (including Hong Kong) and a net increase of 56 overseas. As of the end of the third quarter, the company's total number of stores worldwide reached 38,909; of which, the total number of stores in the Chinese market (including Hong Kong) reached 38,630, including 25,277 self-operated stores and 13,353 jointly operated stores. The company has always regarded customer needs as the core driving force for store expansion. At the same time, relying on its digital operation capabilities, the company continues to identify the diversified needs of different regions and continuously improves the national store network covering all tier cities, counties and towns, so that consumers can conveniently and quickly enjoy Luckin products and services in various scenarios such as work and life, shopping and leisure, commuting and travel. As store scale continues to expand, new stores this year have maintained healthy operating quality overall, providing strong support for the company to further expand its delivery network and increase long-term market share. In the international market, the total number of overseas stores reached 279 at the end of the third quarter, including 103 self-operated stores in Singapore, 22 self-operated stores in the United States, and 154 franchised stores in Malaysia. With the number of stores in Singapore reaching 100, Luckin has become the second largest coffee chain brand in terms of number of stores in Singapore. Relying on domestic mature digital operation experience, combined with local consumer demand and market characteristics, the company continues to optimize local operations, basically runs through the Singapore store economic model, continues to improve single store operating performance, and the brand, products and service experience have gradually gained positive recognition from local customers. The achievements in the Singapore market prove the replicability potential of Luckin's business model overseas, and also accumulate valuable operational experience for the company to steadily expand into more international markets.
In terms of products, the company adheres to coffee as the core, continues to improve professionalism and promotes diversified innovation, continuously enriches the product matrix, and uses stronger product power to attract users to retain and repurchase. In the third quarter, the company launched a total of 41 ready-made drinks and more than 20 light snacks. In the coffee field, the company focuses on strengthening Luckin's professionalism and brand tone, launching the Ethiopian Geisha cold brew, and on this basis, it has innovatively expanded a number of new cold brew products to provide consumers with more professional coffee choices. At the same time, the company has promoted two special products that have received positive feedback in the "Lab Store" to be available nationwide for a limited time, bringing customers a more unique coffee experience. In the non-coffee field, the company continues to expand product categories and enrich beverage options at different times and scenarios. Among them, the newly launched Thai milk series in August received an enthusiastic response from consumers, with sales exceeding 13 million cups in the first week of launch, setting a new sales record for this year, further demonstrating the potential of the non-coffee category in expanding customer base coverage and expanding consumer demand.
On the customer side, the company continues to innovate the way it interacts with consumers, continuously improves brand favorability and attractiveness, and converts consumers' love for Luckin into repeated purchases through a more convenient store network and richer product selections, driving steady growth in customer scale and consumption frequency. During the quarter, the company continued to strengthen interaction and emotional connection with consumers through sports events and multiple IP co-branding, and deepened Luckin's healthy, young and fashionable brand image. During the World Cup in July, Luckin, as a sponsor of the Spanish and Portuguese national teams, launched a series of brand activities to share lucky moments with fans. This quarter, the brand also co-branded with Disney's classic "Villain Series", which reflects its extremely creative insight and combines IP creativity and product innovation to bring customers a more engaging and interesting consumer experience, which has been widely praised. In the third quarter, Luckin added more than 28 million new trading customers, and as of the end of the quarter, its cumulative trading customers exceeded 520 million. The average monthly transaction customers in the quarter exceeded 120 million, reaching a new high. In addition, since the beginning of this year, the per capita cup volume of trading customers has steadily increased, and also reached a new high in the third quarter. The continued improvement in user trends indicates that the positive flywheel of China's coffee consumption supply and frequency growth has begun to operate, which further confirms the company's judgment on long-term coffee consumption demand and provides a solid demand foundation for the company to continue to promote scale growth.
In terms of sustainable development, the company has always integrated social responsibility into corporate development. In the third quarter, the company focused on promoting public welfare activities and paying attention to the physical and mental health and growth of different groups. In Singapore, the company is not only committed to local services, but also actively participates in community welfare. Luckin has cooperated with the Singapore Institute of Mental Hygiene (IMH) and its subsidiary charity Banqiao Hospital Charitable Foundation (WHCF) for many times to support the promotion of mental health issues and community care through activities such as charity co-branded peripheral fundraising and store charity painting displays. At the end of September, taking advantage of the opening of 100 stores in Singapore, Luckin further established a long-term charity partnership with these two organizations and will work together to continue to deepen the public's understanding of mental health. Domestically, the company launched the three-year "Starlight Plan" in Pu'an, Guizhou, to support the development of local youth football. By providing nutritional support, training equipment and organizing exchange activities, more mountainous children have the opportunity to participate in the sport they love and gain health, confidence and growth in sports. In addition, after the debris flow disaster occurred at the Jilong Port in Tibet, the company joined hands with the China Rural Development Foundation to donate funds immediately to support disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction. In the future, as the business scale continues to grow, Luckin will not only be committed to providing high-quality products and experiences to more consumers, but also through warm and inclusive localized sustainable practices, stay close to the community, respond to the practical needs of different groups, continue to give back to relevant people upstream and downstream of the industry chain, and actively create longer-term social value.
Guo Jinyi, co-founder and CEO of Luckin Coffee, said: "We continue to promote high-quality scale growth strategy and achieve positive results. As China's coffee consumption demand continues to grow, the company has always maintained an industry-leading pace of opening stores, and the average number of monthly transaction customers this quarter hit a new high. At the same time, we continue to improve profitability, with non-GAAP net profit in this quarter exceeding 2.1 billion yuan. "
