What happened
Shares of Dutch Bros (BROS 1.88%) charged sharply higher over the past week, surging as much as 22.3%. As of market close on Thursday, the stock was up 16.2%.
The catalyst that sent the coffee chain higher was a report that suggested more Americans were venturing out for their morning cup of joe, and Dutch Bros has been consistently outperforming its largest rivals.
So what
Foot traffic at the most popular coffee chains outperformed the rest of the dining sector in 2021, according to research released by data analytics company Placer.ai. Additionally, while customer visits have improved across the board at the leading coffee shops, Dutch Bros experienced the most prominent jump, outperforming Starbucks (SBUX -0.80%) and privately held Dunkin' Brands by a wide margin.
Image source: Getty Images.
Compared to 2019, Dutch Bros has seen its monthly visits skyrocket, increasing by as much as 160% during December 2021. For context, Starbucks and Dunkin' experienced foot traffic increases of less than 20% between March and December after seeing declines in January and February.
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Finance, Placer.ai's chief marketing officer Ethan Chernofsky said, "beyond seeing visits going up over time, we see that visits per location number going up, which really indicates that loyalty [from Dutch Bros customers]." It also suggests that the regional coffee chain is becoming a solid competitor to its more entrenched rivals.
Now what
This isn't strictly an apples-to-apples comparison, as Dutch Bros is operating from a much smaller base. The company closed out 2021 with 538 stores, while Starbucks coincidentally opened that many stores in the fourth quarter alone, with a whopping 33,833 locations worldwide.
Dutch Bros only went public in September, so it's still extremely early in the company's growth story. That said, if it can continue to grow its customer visits at the current pace, Dutch Bros could eventually take its place among the coffeehouse leaders.
