SEATTLE Pleased with improvements made in store performance and profitability, Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday said it has identified 30 company-operated stores once slated for closure that will now remain open.
Company officials said they would announce which stores would be saved from closure at the end of the day on Thursday, once all impacted employees are informed.
In a statement Wednesday, Starbucks said, “This decision was made after carefully monitoring these stores for sales, profitability and acceptable returns in the foreseeable future. We want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our partners (employees) as well as the overwhelming response we’ve received from our customers in these communities.”
Over the past year, the company had identified nearly 1,000 underperforming stores within the 16,729-unit chain targeted to close before the end of this year. By the end of the third quarter at the end of June, 676 of the designated domestic stores had closed, as well as 89 international units.
The company earlier this year raised its cost-savings target from $500 million to $550 million, and Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive, declared the company’s transformation was well underway.
The company reported a profit of $151.5 million, or 20 cents per share, for the June 28-ended quarter, compared with a net loss of $6.7 million, or 1 cent per share, in the year-ago quarter, and analysts hailed the company’s efforts for producing the most “solid all-around” performance since 2007.
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected]