Starbucks continues to reshape its corporate workforce as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s broader effort to simplify company operations, cut costs, and reorganize locations of certain support functions.
The coffee giant has already eliminated hundreds of corporate roles this year, consolidated parts of its regional office network, and expanded its presence in Nashville as it pushes ahead with its “Back to Starbucks” turnaround.
Now, another 224 employees who work at or report to Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters are affected, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing reviewed by TheStreet.
The latest filing, however, does not represent an entirely new round of cuts.
About 120 of the affected employees were offered the opportunity to continue working for Starbucks by transferring to its growing Nashville, Tennessee, office, but declined to relocate.
Another approximately 104 separations are tied to organizational changes resulting from the restructuring announced by Starbucks in May.
The first separations are expected to take place on Oct. 19, with all of the layoffs completed by Nov. 1.
Starbucks layoffs follow several rounds of cuts
The August WARN notice follows several workforce reductions at Starbucks this year.
In May, Starbucks confirmed plans to eliminate approximately 300 U.S. support positions as it streamlined its domestic and international support organization.
A Washington WARN filing subsequently showed 252 employees at the Starbucks Support Center in Seattle affected by the restructuring.
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Starbucks said at the time that its leaders had reviewed their functions to sharpen the company’s focus, prioritize work, reduce complexity, and lower costs.
The company also began consolidating its U.S. regional support-office footprint, including offices in Atlanta, Burbank, Chicago, and Dallas, while retaining its Seattle headquarters and other offices.
Those reductions came almost simultaneously with another round of technology cuts.
In May, Starbucks disclosed that 61 employees working at its Seattle Support Center would lose their jobs as part of a reorganization of its technology department.
Those cuts were separate from the approximately 300 U.S. support roles eliminated as part of the broader restructuring, a Starbucks spokesperson previously confirmed to TheStreet.
The affected technology positions included engineers, cybersecurity employees, architects, managers, program managers, and other corporate roles.
Earlier in the year, Starbucks also closed five Seattle coffeehouses, affecting 69 workers under a March WARN filing.
The latest 224-worker notice, however, is closely connected to another piece of the company’s transformation: Starbucks’ expansion into Nashville.
Starbucks shifts corporate work to Nashville
While Starbucks is cutting some corporate positions, it is building another major support center farther from its Seattle headquarters.
In April, the company revealed a $100 million investment to establish an additional corporate office in Nashville, where Starbucks expects to locate as many as 2,000 support jobs over five years.
Starbucks has emphasized that Nashville will complement rather than replace Seattle, where the majority of its support employees will continue to be based.
But the Aug. 20 filing demonstrates that the expansion is already changing where some existing employees are expected to work.
Approximately 120 employees covered by the latest notice were offered transfers to Nashville but chose not to relocate.
Employees who elect to move are not being separated, according to the notice.
Starbucks had already formally approved the relocation of certain support functions to Nashville during its fiscal second quarter.
The company said the Southeast office gives it greater proximity to suppliers, access to a growing pool of technology talent, and a presence closer to regions where it expects future coffeehouse growth.
The other roughly 104 positions in the new WARN filing are primarily associated with Starbucks’ coffeehouse design and development operations.
Those changes came on a different timetable from the rest of the May restructuring after Starbucks brought in new leadership for the group.
Starbucks pursues $2 billion in cost savings
The layoffs and office consolidation form part of a much greater cost-cutting effort under Niccol.
Starbucks is targeting $2 billion in gross cost savings through fiscal 2028, spread across product and distribution costs, operating expenses, and general and administrative expenses.
The company said in May that its latest restructuring would further streamline domestic and international support functions and non-retail facilities while reducing complexity in its Starbucks Reserve and Roastery operations.
Starbucks initially estimated the plan would generate approximately $400 million in restructuring charges.
About $280 million was expected to consist of non-cash charges largely associated with long-lived assets and its non-retail real estate footprint, while another $120 million was expected to be cash charges primarily related to employee separation benefits.
Those expenses are now showing up in Starbucks’ financial statements.
Starbucks recorded $302.6 million in restructuring and impairment expenses during its fiscal third quarter, up from $20.8 million during the same period a year ago.
Of the fiscal 2026 restructuring costs recorded during the quarter, $72.6 million was associated with employee severance, separation, and other costs.
Starbucks has also incurred substantial costs related to impairments of stores and non-retail facilities.
The restructuring extends beyond corporate offices.
Starbucks said it closed 247 stores during the first three quarters of fiscal 2026 as part of a restructuring plan first announced in fiscal 2025.
Those closures targeted coffeehouses that Starbucks determined either lacked a viable path to profitability or failed to meet its standards for the physical environment it wants for customers and workers.
Starbucks says turnaround beginning to pay off
The latest workforce changes are underway as Starbucks begins reporting stronger financial results from its turnaround.
In its fiscal third quarter, global comparable-store sales increased 7.9%, while U.S. comparable sales also rose 7.9%.
North America’s operating margin improved year over year, and Starbucks raised its full-year fiscal 2026 guidance.
Starbucks CFO Cathy Smith said consolidated general and administrative expenses declined approximately 20% during the quarter.
It reflects a combination of cost savings, the deconsolidation of Starbucks’ China business, and the comparison with expenses incurred a year earlier.
The company also recorded $53 million in restructuring-related savings in its corporate operations during the quarter and $164 million during the first three quarters of the fiscal year.
“We remain on track with our $2 billion cost savings plan,” Smith told analysts during Starbucks’ July earnings call.
At the same time, Starbucks is directing some of those resources back into its coffeehouses.
The company has been increasing labor investments, remodeling stores, and trying to restore what Niccol calls the Starbucks “third place” experience.
It surpassed 1,000 coffeehouse upgrades in North America during the third quarter and now plans to complete at least 1,500 by the end of fiscal 2026.
That leaves Starbucks pursuing two strategies at once: spending more on the coffeehouses’ customers see while making the corporate organization behind them smaller, cheaper, and increasingly spread beyond Seattle.
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