Sept. 25, 2025 "Starbucks shuttering stores, laying off 900 workers in Canada and U.S.": Today I found this article on CBC:
Starbucks is laying off around 900 non-retail employees
and closing some U.S. and Canadian stores as it focuses more of its resources on a turnaround.
The Seattle coffee giant will notify employees whose positions are being eliminated early Friday and said that it plans to close an undetermined number of stores in North America in the coming days.
A spokesperson for Starbucks Canada confirmed the news but did not say how many Canadian employees will be affected or which Canadian locations will close.
A review of Starbucks locations revealed that many are
falling short of financial performance targets
or are failing to create the environment customers expect,
according to a letter sent by Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on Thursday.
"Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from
financial performance
to lease expirations,"
Niccol wrote.
"This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers.
Our coffeehouses are centres of the community and closing any location is difficult."
Starbucks said Thursday that it expects
to end its fiscal year with 18,300 stores in North America,
down 124 from last year.
It's rare for Starbucks to shrink its store count during a fiscal year.
Niccol is a turnaround specialist who was brought into Starbucks a year ago this month to give the brand a jolt.
Under Niccol's leadership,
the struggling Chipotle chain, where Niccol was CEO for about six years,
essentially doubled
its revenue
and its profit
— and stock price
— soared.
Starbucks said it will offer severance and support packages for affected employees.
With files from CBC's Jenna Benchetrit
Sept. 26, 2025 "Starbucks CTO resigned Monday, interim named": Today I found this article by Waylon Cunningham on BNN Bloomberg:
Starbucks’ chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre resigned without a permanent replacement, according to an internal memo sent to corporate staff on Monday, seen by Reuters.
The memo, written by Chief Financial Officer Cathy Smith, named Ningyu Chen, previously senior vice president of global experience technology, as interim chief technology officer.
Lefevre, a former McDonald’s executive, was hired in May 2022 as part of the chain’s focus on improving its
drive-through,
mobile ordering
and other systems.
The memo said she planned to retire.
“Our tech priorities aren’t changing,” the memo said.
“We’re focused on the tech work needed to deliver our Back to Starbucks plan.”
Lefevre didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment Thursday night.
The global coffee chain in recent months has introduced several technology initiatives,
including an AI-powered automated inventory counter
that is in the process of being rolled out to all company-owned stores in North America by the end of September.
Other initiatives include an
AI assistant for baristas
and a new point-of-sales system.
On Thursday, the company said it would close underperforming stores in the United States.
Its overall company-owned U.S. and Canada store count is expected to drop by one per cent,
with several hundred stores expected to close by the end of the 2025 fiscal year.
It also said 900 non-retail roles would be eliminated, with affected employees being notified Friday.
The technology initiatives are part of a corporate turnaround called “Back to Starbucks” being pursued by CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm last year to revive the chain’s fortunes. He has aimed to revive the chain’s “coffeehouse” appeal following six consecutive quarters of sales declines.
Starbucks’ February layoffs of 1,100 corporate employees hit the IT team particularly hard, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.
They said an outside contractor named Tata Consultancy Services, based in India, has been given an increasing role in Starbucks IT division.
Starbucks in a statement Friday said the company will
“continue to have a very significant in-house technology team,
but the focus is on the most important capabilities and the most important work.”
Shares have lost more than 12 per cent of their value over the last 12 months,
compared with a 16 per cent increase in the broad-market Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX.
(Reporting by Waylon Cunningham Editing by Nick Zieminski)
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/2025/09/26/starbucks-cto-resigned-monday-interim-named/
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