KitchenKitten99
11-11-2008, 08:30 AM
Starbucks 4Q profit drops 97 pct on closure costs
By LAUREN SHEPHERD, AP Business Writer
14 HOURS AGO
NEW YORK - Fewer U.S. customers and venti-sized costs for closing poorly performing stores led to lower sales and profit in the fourth quarter at Starbucks Corp., the company said Monday.
Seattle-based Starbucks said profit fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. The coffee retailer earned 10 cents per share when the costs from closing about 600 stores in the U.S. and 61 locations in Australia are excluded.
Analysts expected profit of 13 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
Starbucks began shutting the U.S. and Australian stores this summer as part of a campaign to reverse slowing sales and falling profits at the company. That turnaround began at the start of the year when former Chief Executive Howard Schultz took back the reins of the company to again fill the CEO and chairman posts.
...see rest at link
I love Starbucks, but they closed both the ones with drive-thrus that were within 5 miles of my house. Now the only one near me that is open doesn't have a drive-thru. I like to stop on cold winter weekend mornings if I am helping open the store I work at (which on Saturdays, I can be scheduled as early as 7am), and luckily the one closest that has a drive-thru is on my way. If I am by myself and not on my way to work, I will go in the store, but I don't like have to drag both my kids in the store just for a coffee, so I go even less than I did before, which then was at least four times a month, more in the cold months.
There is a Caribou across from my work that I do visit, but they don't have the winter flavors I like that Starbuck's has, like the EggNog Chai or Pumpkin Spice Latte.
By LAUREN SHEPHERD, AP Business Writer
14 HOURS AGO
NEW YORK - Fewer U.S. customers and venti-sized costs for closing poorly performing stores led to lower sales and profit in the fourth quarter at Starbucks Corp., the company said Monday.
Seattle-based Starbucks said profit fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. The coffee retailer earned 10 cents per share when the costs from closing about 600 stores in the U.S. and 61 locations in Australia are excluded.
Analysts expected profit of 13 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
Starbucks began shutting the U.S. and Australian stores this summer as part of a campaign to reverse slowing sales and falling profits at the company. That turnaround began at the start of the year when former Chief Executive Howard Schultz took back the reins of the company to again fill the CEO and chairman posts.
...see rest at link
I love Starbucks, but they closed both the ones with drive-thrus that were within 5 miles of my house. Now the only one near me that is open doesn't have a drive-thru. I like to stop on cold winter weekend mornings if I am helping open the store I work at (which on Saturdays, I can be scheduled as early as 7am), and luckily the one closest that has a drive-thru is on my way. If I am by myself and not on my way to work, I will go in the store, but I don't like have to drag both my kids in the store just for a coffee, so I go even less than I did before, which then was at least four times a month, more in the cold months.
There is a Caribou across from my work that I do visit, but they don't have the winter flavors I like that Starbuck's has, like the EggNog Chai or Pumpkin Spice Latte.