Luckin Coffee Turns First Annual Profit

What’s new: Starbucks challenger Luckin Coffee Inc. turned a full-year operating profit for the first time in 2022, despite being hit by Covid-19 lockdowns in the fourth quarter.

The coffee chain’s operating profit last year reached 1.16 billion yuan ($168 million) with a margin of 8.7%, bouncing back from a loss of 539 million yuan in 2021, according to the company’s earnings report released Thursday. Revenue surged 66.9% year-on-year to 13.3 billion yuan in 2022.