Starbucks is closing 250 stores. Read the memo it sent to staff.

Starbucks plans to close approximately 250 underperforming North American coffeehouses following a review of its store portfolio.

Marcin Golba/NurPhoto via Getty Images Starbucks says it will close about 250 underperforming North American stores.

The coffee giant is returning to its roots and pushing to get more customers back into its stores.

Read the memo Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams sent to staff in full below.

Starbucks said on Thursday that it will be closing 250 underperforming locations across North America.

COO Mike Grams told staff in a memo that a review of its operations found many stores that can't consistently deliver adequate financial performance or customer experiences.

The closures represent just over 1% of Starbucks' more than 18,000 North American locations.

The company said it will offer affected employees transfers wherever possible and severance when no other position is available.

The move comes as Starbucks pushes ahead with its "Back to Starbucks" turnaround strategy , including plans to complete 1,500 store upgrades to entice more customers back into stores.

Grams said the company's North American business has returned to strong growth and that Starbucks remains committed to opening new coffeehouses across the region in the years ahead.

Read the full memo sent to employees below: Partners, I want to share a decision we've made in support of our Back to Starbucks strategy.

We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don't see a path to acceptable financial performance.

As a result, we will close approximately 250 coffeehouses later this week.

This represents approximately 1% of our more than 18,000 North America coffeehouses.