Starbucks' coffee is bitter: 100 closures and 900 redundancies
The Seattle-based multinational has been in crisis for some time: it had already announced layoffs at the beginning of the year. Niccol's cure, former head of the Chipotle chain, is struggling
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Key points
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Staburcks, an American chain of coffee shops that years ago caused claim for its landing in Milan with a tourism in the city centre, plans to close dozens of cafés and lay off 900 people in an attempt to recover from the difficulties.
The announcement of cuts
.Brian Niccol, the company's CEO, outlined the plans in a letter to employees. He said that the chain will close premises that are unable to 'offer a warm and welcoming space' or meet financial targets.
The restructuring will result in the closing of more than 100 shops in North America and locations in the UK - although Starbucks did not provide an overall total - while 900 'non-retail' employees will be laid off as part of the restructuring. At the beginning of the year, Starbucks had announced another 1,100 redundancies.
Niccol's recipe
.Niccol, former head of the Mexican fast food chain Chipotle, was hired last year to revive the company's fortunes. So far no appreciable results have been seen: he played down the closures, recalling how every year coffee shops open and close, but had to admit that the closures come as the world's largest coffee chain struggles with declining sales.
Its restructuring plan is expected to cost around$1 billion and the chain will focus on improving existing shops to make them more attractive.
