SEPTEMBER 25, 2025 — 900 EMPLOYEES TARGETED
CEO Brian Niccol announced that the company will close approximately 1% of its locations in the United States and North America, and cut about 900 jobs, as part of its Back to Starbucks transformation strategy.
Message from Brian: An Important Update
Partners,
I’m grateful for the work everyone is doing to put world-class customer service at the center of everything we do and focus on creating an elevated Starbucks experience for every customer, every time.
While we’re making good progress, there is much more to do to build a better, stronger, and more resilient Starbucks. As we approach the beginning of our new fiscal year, I’m sharing two decisions we’ve made in support of our Back to Starbucks plan. Both are grounded in putting our resources closest to the customer so we can create great coffeehouses, offer world-class customer service, and grow the business.
Changes to some of our coffeehouses
First, I shared earlier this year that we were carefully reviewing our North America coffeehouse portfolio through the additional lens of our Back to Starbucks plan. Our goal is for every coffeehouse to deliver a warm and welcoming space with a great atmosphere and a seat for every occasion.
During the review, we identified coffeehouses where we’re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed.
Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations. This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult.
To put it into context: Since we’ve already opened numerous coffeehouses over the past year, our overall company-operated count in North America will decline by about 1% in fiscal year 2025 after accounting for both openings and closures.
Reducing non-retail partner roles
Second, we’re further reducing non-retail headcount and expenses. This includes the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 900 current non-retail partner roles and close many open positions.
As we build toward a better Starbucks, we’re investing in green apron partner hours, more partners in stores, exceptional customer service, elevated coffeehouse designs, and innovation to create the future. We will continue to carefully manage costs and stay focused on the key areas that drive long-term growth.
Non-retail partners whose roles are being eliminated will be notified tomorrow morning (Friday). We will offer generous severance and support packages including benefits extensions.
Unless your job specifically requires you to be on site in the office, we’re asking you to work from home today and tomorrow.
What’s next
These steps are to reinforce what we see is working and prioritize our resources against them. Early results from coffeehouse uplifts show customers visiting more often, staying longer, and sharing positive feedback. Where we’ve invested in more green apron partner hours so that there are more partners working at busy times, we saw improvements in transactions, sales, and service times, alongside happier, more engaged partners.
I know these decisions impact our partners and their families, and we did not make them lightly. I believe these steps are necessary to build a better, stronger, and more resilient Starbucks that deepens its impact on the world and creates more opportunities for our partners, suppliers, and the communities we serve.
To those partners who will be leaving, I want to say a profound thank you. To those continuing on our turnaround journey, I deeply appreciate your commitment to helping us get back to Starbucks.
Brian Niccol, chairman and chief executive officer
FEBRUARY 25, 2025 — 1,100 EMPLOYEES TARGETED
The company has announced that it will lay off 1,100 corporate employees and will not fill several hundred other open positions.
According to the company…
Partners,
In January, I shared that we were evaluating the role, structure and size of our global support teams to help us deliver on our “Back to Starbucks” plan and position the company for future success.
The leadership team has finished that work, and this week, we will communicate the changes we’re making. This includes the hard decision to eliminate 1,100 current support partner roles and several hundred additional open and unfilled positions.
We are simplifying our structure, removing layers and duplication and creating smaller, more nimble teams. Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration. All with the goal of being more focused and able to drive greater impact on our priorities.
I recognize the news is difficult. It is not a decision the leadership team took lightly. We understand the real effect this has on partners’ lives and their families. We believe it’s a necessary change to position Starbucks for future success — and to ensure we deliver for our green apron partners and the customers they serve.
We’re committed to sharing the news with partners who are affected thoughtfully and with the respect they deserve. We will also do everything we can to support those leaving. This includes providing a comprehensive severance package to support them. We will share more on the timeline for this week and how we are taking care of partners shortly.
What You Need to Know
Our new structure is built to focus on priority work and is oriented to support the experience we create in our coffeehouses. We’ll simplify what we do and how we work to make it easier to drive the business forward.
We will continue to hire for priority positions that fit with our new support structure and add capability and capacity we need.
New Leadership Expectations
With these changes, we’re also taking intentional, near-term steps to bring together our North America leadership teams.
Moving forward, vp+ leaders in North America will need to be present with their teams in our Seattle (U.S.) and Toronto (Canada) offices at least three days a week. We will maintain a designated set of ‘in-market’ roles to directly support our green apron partners and coffeehouse operations in specific geographies. More information will be provided directly to leaders regarding in-office expectations. This does not change hybrid work policies or in-office expectations for other partners.
Generally, partners working remotely in director and below roles today will keep their remote status. Hiring for future roles will require partners to be Seattle or Toronto based, except for enterprise designated remote positions.
I know this process is challenging and recognize the impact it will have on partners whose roles are being eliminated. Starbucks is what it is today because of the contributions of incredible partners, like you. On behalf of the executive leadership team, thank you. We appreciate all you’ve done for our company, our partners and our customers, and we’ll do all we can to support you.
With appreciation,
Brian Niccol, chairman and chief executive officer
NOVEMBER 15, 2018 — 350 HQ STAFFERS GONE — ACTIVIST INVESTOR HAS NOSE UNDER THE TENT.
Continuing with the reorganization plan previous announced, the company will be laying off 350 employees, mostly at their Seattle headquarters, and mostly in areas like marketing, creative, product, technology and store development.
According to CEO Kevin Johnson, “Every single decision was made after very careful consideration and reviewed with leaders across the company. And while incredibly difficult, they came as a result of work that has been eliminated, de-prioritized or shifting ways of working within the company.”
Look for more changes driven by activist/investor William Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management who has taken an interest in the company.
JUNE 25, 2018 — Original post…
It should come as no surprise that Starbucks has continued to restructure its store in the face of slower business, increasing competition, bad publicity, higher rents, wage minimums, and market saturation.
The latest realignment comes with the announcement that Starbucks is planning to close at least 150 stores and layoff hundreds of employees. Even noting that growth is slowing, the company will be catering to Wall Street by increasing share buy-backs and shareholder dividends.
Starbucks Announces Strategic Priorities and Operational Initiatives to Accelerate Growth and Create Long-Term Shareholder Value
Starbucks is optimizing its U.S. store portfolio at a more rapid pace in FY19, including shifting new company-operated store growth to underpenetrated markets, slowing licensed store growth, and increasing the closure of underperforming company-operated stores in its most densely penetrated markets to approximately 150 in FY19 from a historical average of up to 50 annually. In FY19, this will result in a slightly lower growth rate in net new company-operated stores.
Adds 5 million new digitally registered customers with Digital Flywheel since April 2018; Active Starbucks Rewards members up 13 percent year-over-year to 15 million
Three newer major digital initiatives will contribute approximately 1-2% attributable comps in FY19
Raises target for cash returned to shareholders to $25 billion through FY20, including a 20 percent increase in the company’s regularly scheduled quarterly dividend
Sharpens focus on optimizing store footprint, anticipates lower net new store growth in the U.S. for FY19 - further concentrating growth in underpenetrated markets
Decisive steps being taken by leadership to address an anticipated 1 percent growth in Q3 FY18 global comparable store sales
Announces plans to drive G&A efficiency [cost-cutting]
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something terrible hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. While many employees can read the writing on the wall, why do most assume it’s targeted at someone else? Are you now wondering, Am I Next?
