CEO Brian Niccol writes to staff saying changes will be formalised by early March 2025 and are part of efforts to remove streamline mid-tier management and better integrate teams across its 40,000 stores
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Starbucks currently operates 40,200 stores across 88 markets globally, employing over 360,000 staff | Photo credit: Ionut Zamfir
Starbucks has announced plans to reduce its global corporate headcount as part of a drive to boost efficiency and speed up decision making.
In an open letter to staff, CEO Brian Niccol said the US coffee chain needed to ‘examine the role, structure and size’ of its support teams around the world to increase accountability and reduce silos.
“Our size and structure can slow us down, with too many layers, managers of small teams and roles focused primarily on coordinating work. We need to meaningfully change how our support teams are organised and how we work, making sure that we are prioritising the areas that have the biggest impact on the experience in our stores,” he wrote.
Changes will be formalised by early March 2025, Niccol added, stating that the coffee giant will operate with smaller support teams moving forward. Redundancies will not impact in-store teams.
The move echoes Niccol’s strategy to reduce complexity in Starbucks’ US stores. As part of plans to re-establish Starbucks as ‘the ‘community coffeehouse’ in the US, Niccol has also set a goal to serve in-store customers ‘in four minutes or less’ by reducing menu complexity and customisation options. The reintroduction of self-service milk, sugar and condiment bars is also expected designed to reduce the burden on in-store servers.
Seeking to reinvigorate sluggish sales globally, Niccol has also overseen several key senior leadership changes and outlined plans to explore strategic partnerships in China to drive outlet and revenue growth in its second largest market.
Seattle-based Starbucks currently operates 40,200 stores across 88 markets globally, employing over 360,000 staff. The world’s largest coffee chain reported a 0.6% year-on-year sales decline in the 12 months ended 29 September 2024 to $36.1bn, alongside an 8% decline in operating income to $5.4bn. US like-for-like sales fell 2% during the year and 6% in the fourth quarter.