Starbucks cafes across Australia will close at 2pm today to tell staff about their futures only a month after Starbucks in the US announced it would shut down 600 stores there.

An email sent to the Sydney Morning Herald last night said store managers would be told today if their outlets were to remain open or be closed and would inform their staff at meetings at 4pm.

The company operates more than 16,000 stores around the world, including 85 in Australia.

Stores contacted last night confirmed the closure but would not give any more details. They referred any questions to head office, whose press officers did not return calls.

It is not known how many Sydney stores will be closed or if it will be all stores or all Australian outlets, which are all owned by the company.

Last month Starbucks announced it would close 600 company-operated stores in the US, costing up to 12,000 jobs.

The company said 70% of the cafes slated for closure had opened after the start of 2006. The chief financial officer, Pete Bocian, said that meant Starbucks would close 19% of all US company-operated stores that opened in the past two years. He said a Starbucks store's revenue dropped 25 to 30 %per cent when a new one opened nearby.

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