“Our fourth quarter performance makes it clear that we need to fundamentally change our strategy so we can get back to growth and that’s exactly what we are doing with our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement.

“I believe that our problems are very fixable and that we have significant strengths to build on,” he added.

Niccol took over the chain last month, after the abrupt departure in August of Laxman Narasimhan, who had held the post of CEO for only 16 months.

Preliminary quarterly results showed that sales had fallen 3.2% year-on-year to US$9.1 billion. The company reported preliminary adjusted earnings per share of 80 cents. Full quarterly results are due to be published on Oct 30.

The company said such results were driven by “softness in North America’s revenues in the quarter,” specifically a 6% decline in US comparable store sales, driven by a 10% decline in comparable transactions – but partially offset by a 4% increase in average transactions.

Various promotions introduced by the company “did not improve customer behaviours,” Starbucks said.

The company also suffered in China, where comparable store sales declined 14%, “weighed down by intensified competition and a soft macro environment that impacted consumer spending,” Starbucks said.

As of the end of June, the US and China, with 16,730 and 7,306 stores respectively, accounted for 61% of all Starbucks coffee shops worldwide.

In after-hours electronic trading, Starbucks shares were down 3.92% on the New York Stock Exchange.