Starbucks' chief financial officer Troy Alstead said Wednesday the company will not close 30 locations it had scheduled to shutter because of improved profitability.
Alstead made the announcement during the Goldman Sachs retail conference in New York.
As of July, the coffee chain had closed a total of 765 locations: 676 in the United States, 61 in Australia and 28 in other international markets.
Recycling pilot
In other news, seven New York City locations are participating in a pilot program to test the collection and recycling of coffee cups when combined with old corrugated cardboard (OCC) sleeves. The program, conducted in partnership with Global Green USA's Coalition for Resource Recovery, is designed to develop a cost effective mechanism to close the loop on paper packaging.
Starbucks participation in the pilot is an extension of the company's efforts to develop a recyclable cup solution by 2012.
Duro Bag, the largest paper bag manufacturer in the world, is designing a special paper bin liner so cups can be collected and recycled along with the corrugated cardboard. The prototype bag will be tested as part of the trial.
"The lessons learned from the cup recycling pilot can be applied to the recycling of hamburger, pizza and French fry containers, and all sorts of other paper food packaging. If the initial pilot is successful, CoRR will expand the pilot to encompass more packaging types and restaurants, furthering our objective of generating business value and closing the loop on packaging," said Annie White, director of Global Green's Coalition for Resource Recovery.
