Starbucks Corp forecasts lower sales that was expected by Wall Street, Reuters reports. At the same the company is planning to close about 150 cafes in the US next financial year, in order to improve profit results.

Company's shares lost 2% after announcement.

The largest coffee shops chain in the world faced growing competition of behave of more expensive restaurants and budget fast food chains, such as McDonald’s Corp and Dunkin’ Donuts. As a result, Starbucks has not satisfied analytics' expectations in regards to sales in American region in five out of six last quarters.

Company expects lower growth of new stores and is going to address changing preferences of customers, offering new cold drinks and focusing on tendencies to healthy food.

Global sales will grow by 1% in third quarter, which is lower than estimated 3%.

Historically, Starbucks closed about 50 cafes a year. China will stay the fastest growing market, where sales grew by 4% last quarter.