Starbucks Announces 200+ Corporate Layoffs as Part of Turnaround Plan

The coffee giant on Thursday published a layoff notice under the WARN Act, clarifying plans to cut over 200 corporate roles after it previously disclosed plans to reduce the corporate workforce by about 300 jobs.

The WARN filing indicated that about 120 of the employee separations are associated with workers from its support team focused on designing and developing coffeehouses who declined the opportunity to relocate from Seattle, Washington, to Nashville, Tennessee.

Additionally, about 104 cuts are organizational changes resulting from restructuring plans detailed in May.

The company is building a new regional corporate office in Nashville that comes with a price tag of $100 million and will house about 2,000 employees, though it is keeping its headquarters in Seattle.

After Niccol took the helm at Starbucks in September 2024, becoming the company’s third CEO in a two-year period, he put the company on a turnaround plan to spur more business in coffeehouses.

The plan has featured efforts to redesign interiors to encourage customers to linger, along with “personal touches,” like writing names on cups and serving drinks in mugs.

It’s also working to ensure proper staffing at stores, streamlining mobile orders, letting customers handle their own condiments and committing to having all drinks ready in four minutes or less.

The filing represents the last component of Starbucks’ remaining organizational changes from the restructuring announced in May so that it can focus on improving the experience at its coffeehouses and those of its employee partners and customers, according to the company.

Starbucks indicated the organizational changes aren’t altering the company’s coffeehouse strategy, and it is moving forward with its “third place experience” of uplifting coffeehouses and expanding and developing its portfolio.

Last year, Starbucks moved to close some underperforming stores and cut 900 non-retail partner roles, while also freezing many open positions as it restructured.

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