Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol to speak at Evercore retail conference

Brian Niccol will return to the investor stage on June 9 when he joins a keynote fireside chat at Evercore’s Consumer and Retail Conference in New York City, a webcast that starts at 11:40 a.m. Eastern time. For Starbucks workers, the point is not the calendar slot. It is whether Niccol uses the appearance to repeat the same turnaround script or signals a shift in what management cares about most: traffic, labor deployment, store experience, menu mix and the pace of execution.

Evercore’s conference runs June 9-11 and is expected to draw executives and industry experts from more than 50 companies. Starbucks has used these investor settings to keep Wall Street focused on the mechanics of its recovery, and the company has been explicit about the numbers it wants to hit by fiscal 2028. In January, Starbucks laid out a framework calling for 5% or more consolidated net revenue growth, 3% or more comparable store sales growth in both the U.S. and globally, more than 2,000 net new stores, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.35 to $4.00.

That backdrop matters because Starbucks has been trying to show that its turnaround is not just a branding exercise. The company said in January that Green Apron Service had been fully rolled out in North America company-operated coffeehouses, part of a push it says is improving service times, throughput and customer satisfaction. In its fiscal first quarter, Starbucks said it delivered U.S. comparable transaction growth for the first time in eight quarters. In the second quarter, it said it posted growth on both the top line and the bottom line for the first time in more than two years.

The operating details behind those results are exactly what store leaders and baristas will be listening for on June 9. Starbucks said about 80% of U.S. company-operated coffeehouses delivered cafe orders in four minutes or less in the second quarter, a metric that points directly to staffing, sequencing and shift management. CNBC also reported on May 28 that the strongest afternoon traffic growth came between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. during the 90 days from February 15 to May 16, and that Refreshers had become Starbucks’ second-best-selling beverage behind espresso. That mix tells management where the growth is coming from and where it may want stores to lean harder on daypart strategy.

The other signal to watch is whether Niccol talks more about expansion or restraint. Late last year, Starbucks said North America company-operated store count would decline by about 1% in fiscal 2025 after openings and closures were counted. It later said its fiscal 2028 plan includes about 400 net new U.S. company-operated stores. For workers, that tension is the story: Starbucks wants to sound like a growth company in turnaround mode, while still pressing stores to run faster, cleaner and with tighter labor discipline. The Evercore remarks will show whether that message is being sharpened or simply repeated.