Starbucks will lay off 350 corporate employees amid a broader effort to revamp its global operations even as the coffeehouse chain’s former top executive gears up for a 2020 presidential bid.
Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson announced the 5 percent reduction of Starbucks’ global workforce in a staff email on Tuesday, writing that the layoffs are “a result of work that has been eliminated, de-prioritized or shifting ways of working within the company.”
The reductions — previewed in September — will occur primarily in the marketing, creative, product, technology and store-development segments, Johnson said.
“Building the next chapter of Starbucks requires us to focus on fewer priorities and transform how our functional teams work in order to accelerate the velocity of innovation,” he said.
Revenue at Starbucks rose 10 percent to $24.7 billion in the 2018 budget year, while profit climbed 57 percent, the Seattle-based company said earlier this month. Starbucks also reported $6.3 billion in sales for the three months through September, a fourth-quarter record.
Former Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz, who led much of the company’s rapid growth over the past three decades, is reportedly assembling a team to run against President Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
