STARBUCKS has already started shutting “some” of its 520 UK stores following a review of its global coffee shops.
At the end of September, the company confirmed it has launched a consultation over the proposed closure of a number of company-owned UK stores, putting workers at the sites at risk.
It did not disclose how many stores will be affected and where these are located.
However, The Sun can reveal that ten stores have or are in the process of bringing the shutters down permanently.
Starbucks in Ilford, at 225-227 High Road, closed first on Thursday, October 2.
The branch at Brunel Retail Park in Whitley followed, closing on Wednesday, October 16.
Next, the store at Leyton Mills Retail Park closed on Sunday, October 19 and London Bridge Station then closed on Monday, October 20.
The remaining locations – Balham, Glasgow Exchange Place, King’s Lynn in Norfolk, Muswell Hill, Aberdeen’s Holburn Junction, and Holland Park – are all set to close on Sunday, October 26.
The hospitality business runs around 520 company-owned stores in the UK, as well as franchise-owned coffee shops.
It is understood more than 5,600 people work for Starbucks across the UK.
The chain said it is planning to close sites where it has not been able to “create the physical environment customers” want, and where they are not sustainably profitable.
However, the coffee chain has said it is still on track to open 80 new Starbucks sites in the UK and is committed to the country.
Last month, the group also revealed it will reduce its portfolio of stores in North America by 1% this year and will cut around 900 North American head office jobs.
The company had 18,734 North American locations at the end of June, and the company said it will end September with 18,300 stores.
The company plans to spend $1billion (£746million) on the cuts, which it aims to complete by the end of this month.
It’s the second time Starbucks has cut corporate jobs since 2018, when it laid off around 350 employees.
Earlier this year, the company cut 1,100 corporate positions in February.
Starbucks is restructuring the business to focus more on investing in its stores and customers.
In a statement, Starbucks said: “As outlined in a letter shared by Brian Niccol (chief executive), we have conducted a review of our coffeehouse portfolio in North America and certain stores have been identified for closure where it has not been possible to create the physical environment customers and partners (employees) want, and where there isn’t a path to financial performance.
“In Europe Middle East and Africa, we have conducted a similar review of our company-operated store portfolio with the goal of ensuring that our stores are correctly located, generating appropriate levels of foot traffic and operating in the right formats.
“While the EMEA business is on track to meet its commitment to open 80 new stores in the UK and 150 across EMEA this financial year, some stores in the UK, Switzerland and Austria will close as a result of this portfolio review.”
Starbucks was founded in 1971 and today services more than 40,000 stores worldwide.
Full list of stores closing
Starbucks has already closed four sites at the following locations:
- Ilford, London (225-227 High Road) – closed on Thursday, October 2
- Brunel Retail Park, Whitley – closed on Wednesday, October 16
- Leyton Mills Retail Park, London – closed on Sunday, October 19
- London Bridge Station – closed on Monday, October 20
A further six stores are set to close at the following locations:
- Balham, London – closing Sunday, October 26
- Exchange Place, Glasgow – closing Sunday, October 26
- Kings Lynn, Norfolk – closing Sunday, October 26
- Muswell Hill Broadway, London – closing Sunday, October 26
- Holburn Junction, Aberdeen – closing Sunday, October 26
- Holland Park, London – closing Sunday, October 26
What’s happening with other UK coffee shops?
Costa Coffee is officially up for sale as Coca-Cola considers offloading the global coffee chain.
The drinks giant, which bought Costa for £3.9billion in 2021, is exploring bids but has received fewer offers than expected.
Costa could be valued as low as £1.5billion, far less than Coca-Cola paid, according to Sky News.
While the company plans to keep Costa’s ready-to-drink supermarket products, its coffee shop operations are under review due to weak financial performance.
Costa, with over 2,000 UK stores and 3,000 globally, has struggled to deliver the growth Coca-Cola hoped for in the competitive coffee market.
Rising business costs, including higher minimum wages and employee national insurance contributions, have been adding pressure to the high street since April.
Retail pain in 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
