Starbucks cuts 300 U.S. jobs, closes some regional support offices

Starbucks is cutting 300 U.S. corporate jobs and closing some regional support offices, a move that shows how aggressively Brian Niccol is stripping costs from the company’s back office while trying to protect the stores customers actually see.

The cuts hit support functions, not coffeehouse roles, and Starbucks said it had begun reviewing its international corporate workforce as well. The company estimated the restructuring would cost about $400 million, including roughly $280 million in noncash charges tied to long-lived asset impairments and about $120 million for severance and job cuts. Starbucks said the changes were meant to bring teams closer together, strengthen leadership accountability and let employees move with greater clarity and urgency.

For Starbucks, the tradeoff is clear: the company is centralizing oversight and reducing layers even as it insists store hours and in-store teams are not being touched. That matters because the turnaround is supposed to improve the customer experience, not just the income statement. Niccol, who has served as chairman and chief executive officer since Sept. 9, 2024, has made the “Back to Starbucks” plan the centerpiece of his tenure, framing it as a reset around cafes, speed and simplicity rather than corporate complexity.

This is the third round of layoffs under Niccol. In February 2025, Starbucks said it was cutting support positions and stressed that the changes would not affect in-store teams or store hours. In June 2025, the company said it was making additional organizational changes to accelerate Back to Starbucks. By September 2025, Starbucks had announced a broader $1 billion restructuring that included about 900 nonretail layoffs and some North American store closures. About 90% of that earlier restructuring cost was expected to hit the North America business.

The new round arrives as Starbucks tries to show that the pain is producing results. On April 28, the company reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 global comparable store sales up 6.2% and net revenues up 9% to $9.5 billion, then raised its fiscal 2026 guidance. Starbucks also said it operates more than 41,000 company-operated and licensed coffeehouses globally, a footprint large enough that even small shifts in staffing and support can ripple through the business.

The strategic question now is whether the company can keep cutting bureaucracy without thinning the infrastructure needed to improve service, simplify operations and hold the sales gains it has started to recover. For Starbucks, the turnaround is no longer just about shrinking overhead. It is about proving that a leaner organization can still deliver faster, cleaner and more consistent cafes.