StarBulletin.com

Starbucks closures to hit Hawaii again


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POSTED: Thursday, January 29, 2009

NEW YORK » Starbucks Corp. said Hawaii will be included in its plans to slash nearly 7,000 more jobs during a new round of store closures and other cuts.

  The gourmet coffee chain, which announced yesterday that its profit dropped by more than two-thirds in its fiscal first quarter, plans to close 300 underperforming stores around the world - including 200 in the U.S. - by the end of the fiscal year in addition to the 600 U.S. stores it began closing this summer. Five Hawaii stories were closed during those cutbacks.

The new store closures could result in the loss of 6,000 jobs, but the company said it will try to offer employees transfers to other nearby locations.

The cuts and changes will result in about $500 million in savings in fiscal 2009, the company said.

Starbucks spokeswoman Katie Kotchka said the latest store closure list is still being finalized and will be available after impacted partners have been notified.

“;We do know our Hawaii region will be impacted,”; she said, adding that there are no specific details about the number of partners or stores in Hawaii.

Starbucks' fiscal first-quarter net income fell 69 percent to $64.3 million, or 9 cents a share, from $208.1 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell 6 percent to $2.62 billion from $2.77 billion.