The Kuwaiti franchise group has reaffirmed its commitment to Starbucks in the Middle East and North Africa as CEO John Hadden indicates that consumer boycotts of the US coffee chain are beginning to ease
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Starbucks Reserve Bluewaters Island outlet in Dubai, UAE | Photo credit: Starbucks
Kuwait-based Alshaya Group has paused plans to sell a minority stake in its sizeable Starbucks Middle East and North Africa (MENA) franchise business.
Plans to sell approximately 30% of the franchise business first circulated in February 2024 as heightened geopolitical tensions led to customer boycotts of Starbucks’ and other Western chains in the region.
Speaking at The Retail Summit 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Alshaya Group CEO John Hadden said stake sale discussions have been put on hold amid a softening of customer boycotts in the latter part of 2024 – a sentiment which echoes comments made by Starbucks Malaysia licensee Berjaya Group two weeks earlier.
“At the moment, we are just simply focused on serving our consumers everyday,” Hadden said at the summit on 27 January 2025.
Alshaya Group became Starbucks’ franchise partner in the MENA region in 1999 and built a formidable business operating over 2,000 stores across 13 markets. In October 2023, Alshaya Group unveiled plans to open 250 net Starbucks outlets annually to reach 3,000 stores across the MENA region by 2028.
World Coffee Portal data shows Alshaya Group’s largest Starbucks market is Turkey where it operates over 720 outlets, ahead of Saudi Arabia and the UAE with 478 and 335 stores respectively.
US private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) have both previously been highlighted as parties of interest in Alshaya Group’s licensed Starbucks business.