Gastronomy Change of boss at Starbucks

SDA

13.8.2024 - 16:53

Starbucks has recently been struggling with declining sales and profits - and the current boss has not been able to turn things around. Now there is a change of boss. His successor also runs a restaurant chain. (archive picture)
Starbucks has recently been struggling with declining sales and profits - and the current boss has not been able to turn things around. Now there is a change of boss. His successor also runs a restaurant chain. (archive picture)
Keystone

Starbucks is getting a new boss who has so far had more to do with burritos than coffee: Brian Niccol was previously at the helm of Chipotle, a chain specializing in Mexican food.

Keystone-SDA

After just over a year, he replaces the hapless Laxman Narasimhan. The latter had failed to boost sales with new products.

Niccol, on the other hand, managed to keep Chipotle's business going at a time when American consumers were cutting back on visits to fast food restaurants. Starbucks shares, which had recently been under pressure, rose by more than a fifth following Niccol's appointment. Chipotle's share price, on the other hand, fell by around 13 percent at times in early US trading.

Starbucks has recently failed to meet expectations

Under Narasimhan, Starbucks recently missed Wall Street's expectations with declines in revenue and profit - and had to lower its sales forecast for this year twice.

Starbucks patriarch Howard Schultz, who has held the top job several times in recent decades, resorted to unusual public criticism in May. The coffee houses - especially in the US home market - need to focus on a better experience for customers, he wrote on the LinkedIn career network. "The answer is not in the data, but in the stores."

Narasimhan's plan recently included speeding up service during the hot morning period and attracting customers to the stores with new drinks and food.