Bitter End for 6,700 Staff As Coffee Retailer Starbucks Shuts Shops
James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
January 29, 2009
The once-iconic American retailer, which saw a 69pc decline in profit in the last three months of 2008, closed 661 shops in the US and Australia last year.
It will now shut 200 company-owned stores in its home country and a further 100 international stores, with the loss of around 6,000 jobs.
Although it did not explicitly say how many of its 700-plus UK stores will go, the UK remains a significant part of its international operation, and the number of British stores to be closed is likely to be in the double-digits, with each store employing an average of 20 people.
The company is being hit in part by slowing consumer spending and also by years of over-expansion at the hands of former management.
Founder Howard Schultz, who returned to run the company in January 2008, is trying to reduce costs – having just put the company's $45m Gulfstream jet up for sale - while focussing on the brand.
Profits at Starbucks fell to $64.3m (£45m) in the quarter, on a 6pc slide in sales.
The company's international business saw a 3pc drop in like-for-like sales, which it blamed on a "further softening of traffic in the UK and Canada".