Longtime Starbucks leader Howard Schultz is stepping down from the company’s board of directors, the coffee chain announced.

Mr Schultz is credited with transforming the Seattle-based business into the coffee giant it is known as today.

His departure from the board is “part of a planned transition”, the company said.

In a prepared statement, Mr Schultz said his “gratitude to (Starbucks employees) and the millions of stakeholders and customers that have helped Starbucks endure is beyond measure”.

He added that he looks “forward to supporting this next generation of leaders to steward Starbucks into the future as a customer, supporter and advocate in my role as chairman emeritus”.

After purchasing Starbucks in 1987, Mr Schultz headed the company as chief executive until 2000 and again between 2008 and 2017.

He later came out of retirement to return as interim chief executive while the company searched for a new chief executive last year – but bid farewell to that title after Laxman Narasimhan officially took the reins in March.

Also on Wednesday, Starbucks announced that Wei Zhang, who most recently served as senior adviser to e-commerce company Alibaba Group, has been elected to the board effective from October 1.

For its third fiscal quarter ended in July, Starbucks reported record revenue – with same-store sales (or sales at stores open at least a year) notably jumping 46% in China, reversing last year’s declines due to Covid restrictions.

Still, the chain’s revenue and same-store sales were lower than expected as North American store traffic slowed.

The Seattle-based coffee giant said its overall revenue for the period rose 12% to 9.2 billion dollars (£7.36 billion) in the quarter – slightly under analysts’ expected revenue of 9.3 billion dollars (£7.44 billion), according to FactSet.

Meanwhile, the company’s net income rose 25% to 1.1 billion dollars (£880 million), or 99 cents per share.

Excluding restructuring costs, the company earned one dollar per share – higher than the 95 cents analysts forecast.