EXCLUSIVE - Starbucks plans more overseas job cuts after slashing 300 U.S. roles
Investing.com -- Starbucks is laying off around 300 U.S. support roles and is reviewing its international support organization as it expects to cut more jobs outside of the country.
“We are streamlining our real estate footprint, including consolidating U.S. regional support office space and taking several other steps with leases and lease commitments,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Investing.com. "We are also reviewing our international support organization as we focus on being a world-class licensor and expect additional role impacts outside the U.S."
In a regulatory filing, the company said it will incur $400 million in restructuring charges. Of that, $280 million in non-cash charges stem from impairments of long-lived assets, such as right-of-use lease assets, mostly tied to a reassessment of its Starbucks Reserve and Roastery locations and efforts to optimize its non-retail support facilities. The remaining $120 million in cash charges are mainly related to employee separation benefits as Starbucks further streamlines its global support organization.
None of these real estate changes and restructuring charges relates to Starbucks’ coffeehouse portfolio. They cover things like regional office closures, a source familiar with the matter told Investing.com.
Shares in the company were up around 1% on Friday.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the affected roles are based in Seattle, along with remote positions scattered around the country. They are in a variety of fields, including technology, marketing, finance, and research and development.
The report said it is closing regional corporate offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Burbank, Calif. It will maintain North American regional offices in New York, Toronto, and Coral Gables, Fla., along with its Seattle headquarters and a new Nashville, Tenn., corporate hub. It is reviewing its international corporate offices for possible cuts.
Starbucks plans to reduce costs by $2 billion by the end of fiscal 2028, offsetting significant investments in its cafe operations. To incentivize progress toward this target, the company is awarding some executives stock bonuses worth $6 million.
In the previous year, Starbucks laid off about 2,000 corporate employees in two rounds of job cuts and eliminated hundreds of unfilled positions. The company also closed hundreds of U.S. stores during that period.