Executives at vice president rank and above must return to offices at least three days per week
Starbucks Corp. is eliminating 1,100 corporate jobs as well as several hundred other open positions, effective this week, as part of broader restructuring efforts, CEO Brian Niccol said Monday.
Additionally, executives in positions of vice president or higher will be required to be in offices in Seattle or Toronto at least three days a week.
People in positions of director or below who were hired to work remotely will maintain their remote status, but new hires in similar positions must be based in Seattle or Toronto, Niccol said in a message to all employees.
Niccol had warned of the layoffs in January.
On Monday he said the moves were the result of evaluation on the part of the leadership team to make Starbucks “operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity, and drive better integration.”
Starbucks has been struggling over the past year amid growing competition from smaller coffeehouse concepts as well as its own operational challenges and changing consumer demands. In its latest quarterly earnings report at the end of January, the Seattle-based chain reported a 4% decrease in global same-store sales, the fourth consecutive quarter of sales declines.
Niccol, the former CEO of Chipotle, was hired last August to engineer a turnaround.
In his message on Monday, Niccol said other changes in employee responsibilities and reporting structures would be shared by the end of this week.
“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,” he said.
He added, “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.”
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]
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