SEATTLE, WA
Just three years after buying out the La Boulange bakery chain for $100 million, Starbucks has announced that it is shutting all 23 stores down.
“As Starbucks stays steadfast in its commitment to achieve long-term growth targets enterprise-wide, it is with careful consideration the company shares the difficult decision to close all 23 La Boulange retail (bakery cafés) locations, as well as the two manufacturing facilities that serve those locations, by the end of September 2015,” the company said in a press release, stating that its ongoing evaluations determined that La Boulange stores were not sustainable for its long-term growth.
The coffee giant bought the pastry chain back in 2013 to help elevate its food portfolio, which it says the purchase and rollout of these items has done successfully. Among other numbers, the release names a 16 percent growth of food delivered for its 2015 second quarter and double-digit year-over-year gains on its lunch platform, which the company appears to attribute to the pastry chain’s successful rollout in both the U.S. and Canada.
The company had initially announced upon purchasing La Boulange that it intended to expand it to a 400-store chain, but Executive Vice President of Technomic, a restaurant consulting firm, Darren Tristano told Ad Week this likely didn’t work out and developed into a learning experience.
"I'd speculate that it was their intention to go down the [expansion] path they indicated, but they likely failed," he said in the report. "But if you look back to the beginning, it didn't really sound like we were going to see them growing La Boulange. It seemed like they were going to learn from it."
Whatever the reason, the shops may be lost but not the items. Starbucks did state clearly in the release that it will continue to serve La Boulange’s pastries.
“The La Boulange brand will continue to play a significant role in the future of Starbucks food in stores, and the company looks forward to serving delicious La Boulange food at its Starbucks retail locations in San Francisco and across the U.S. and Canada.”
The company also added that it will be closing the Evolution Fresh location in San Francisco, California, but that retail partners from both La Boulange and Evolution Fresh will be offered incentives to stay with the company through the closure of each store.
As for Pascal Rigo, Founder of La Boulange, he is leaving his collaboration with Starbucks to dedicate more time and resources to his nonprofit ventures in San Francisco, which supplies quality food to schools with underprivileged children and brings after-school clinics to help children with learning disabilities.
