Starbucks' La Boulange Bakeries To Close All Locations

Starbucks announced on Tuesday that it will shutter all 23 locations of the La Boulange bakery–cafés and their manufacturing facilities in the Bay Area.

Starbucks says that this will not affect the La Boulange-brand food at Starbucks retail stores, explaining that the La Boulange stores are "not sustainable for the company's long-term growth." The locations will close by the end of September 2015. The Evolution Fresh store in San Francisco will also shut its doors.

La Boulange bakery items first entered Starbucks stores in 2013 and the first dedicated La Boulange bakery opened in Los Angeles last June. La Boulange was founded by Pascal Rigo in 1996.

With La Boulange products at Starbucks stores in the United States and Canada, sales of breakfast sandwiches have increased 35 percent each year. The company plans to continue to grow its food business.

We reached out to Starbucks and a spokesperson said: "Starbucks has always had a strong leadership and core team in place to champion the innovation behind Starbucks diverse portfolio of food, of which Pascal was a part of. We'll continue to deepen our commitment to our customers' food experience in-store, ensuring we surpass their expectations for food, just as we're committed to doing with our coffee. This includes bringing in new and seasonal food items throughout the year as we always do, ensuring we're meeting the needs of our customers."