Starbucks Continues Beer And Wine Rollout

Starbucks Corporation SBUX continued the roll-out of its Evenings program designed to spur sales by offering booze to its customers.

The Seattle-based company has pending liquor license applications for 15 of its locations in the San Francisco Bay area, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News.

Starbucks said in December that within five years up to a quarter of its U.S. stores will "offer the Starbucks Evenings experience," adding $1 billion in revenue.

The company began testing alcohol sales in five stores in the Pacific Northwest in 2011 and beer and wine are currently available in fewer than 40 of its more than 11,000 U.S. locations.

The company operates more than 21,000 stores worldwide.

The evening stores offer a limited food menu and wine and beer every day from 4 p.m. to regular closing hours.

The push is part of a group of innovations the company said it would undertake starting this year, including relatively upscale, "Starbucks Reserve only" stores, micro and express store formats, new drive-thru locations and mobile trucks.

The company said in December it aimed to double its annual revenue from food in the U.S. market to about $4 billion within five years.

Starbucks last month posted quarterly same-store sales growth in its Americas region of 7 percent, while total revenue grew about 18 percent to $4.56 billion.