Starbucks Cuts 300 Corporate Jobs as Niccol Pushes Harder on Turnaround Plan

CNBC, FOX Business, the New York Times, CBS News contributed to this report.

Starbucks is cutting another 300 corporate jobs in the US and shutting down some regional support offices as CEO Brian Niccol keeps reshaping the company behind the scenes.

The layoffs, announced Friday, affect support staff rather than baristas or café workers. Starbucks said the move is part of its broader “Back to Starbucks” turnaround strategy aimed at simplifying operations and restoring long-term profitable growth.

The company is also reviewing its international support structure, raising the possibility of more cuts outside the US later on.

“We are taking further action under the Back to Starbucks strategy,” a company spokesperson said, adding that executives had reviewed departments to reduce complexity, sharpen priorities and lower costs.

Starbucks expects the restructuring to cost about $400 million. That includes roughly $120 million in severance and another $280 million tied largely to office space and asset impairments connected to reserve stores, roasteries and support facilities.

Several regional offices, including locations in Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago, are being closed or consolidated as Starbucks trims what it calls an underused real estate footprint.

The latest cuts mark the third major round of layoffs since Niccol took over in 2024. Earlier this year, Starbucks eliminated 1,100 positions and left hundreds of vacancies unfilled. Months later, the company announced another 900 nonretail job cuts as part of a $1 billion restructuring effort.

Even with the cuts, the company’s turnaround has started showing signs of life.

Starbucks had struggled with slowing sales, tighter consumer spending and rising competition before Niccol arrived. Since then, the chain has poured money into store staffing, refreshed menus, brought seating back to more locations and focused heavily on improving the in-store experience.

Those efforts appear to be helping. US same-store sales rose 7.1% in the latest quarter, helped by stronger customer traffic. It was the second straight quarter of growth for Starbucks’ US business.

Niccol recently described the quarter as “the turn in our turnaround.”

Still, the comeback has not been cheap. Operating profit margins have narrowed sharply as Starbucks spends more on labor and store operations while trying to streamline its corporate side.

The company had roughly 9,000 US nonretail workers and another 5,000 international support employees as of late September last year.

At the same time it cuts office space elsewhere, Starbucks is also expanding in Nashville, where it plans to build a major corporate presence expected to employ up to 2,000 people over the next five years.

For now, Starbucks is betting it can slim down its corporate structure while continuing to spend aggressively where customers actually notice it: inside the cafés.