Brand new Starbucks CEO—and longtime Chipotle exec—Brian Niccol, is keeping the coffee giant’s home base in Seattle, even though he himself lives in Orange County.
Since its inception in 1971, Starbucks, which is 125th on the Fortune 500, has been headquartered near its original Pike Place store in Seattle. And while Niccol has outlined a long list of changes he envisions for the chain, uprooting the HQ isn’t one of them—for now, at least.
Relocating “right now is not on the list of things to do,” Niccol told Yahoo Finance on Monday.
Instead, he’s focused on more abstract changes in the chain’s offices around the globe. “We've got to make sure we've got a great culture at the Seattle support center, our New York support center, our Chicago support center.”
That means that, for the foreseeable future, Niccol will be flying to and from the company’s HQ, likely on a Starbucks private jet, in a trip that spans over 1,000 miles up the Pacific coast.
"Brian will be where the business needs him to ensure long-term success. That includes spending time with partners (employees) and visiting stores across the world," a Starbucks spokesperson told Fortune. "Starbucks remains committed to cutting our climate footprint in half by 2030 and we regularly report on our progress. We report emissions related to business travel in our annual update of environmental performance."
The decision to super commute instead of uprooting the company’s HQ (and all who work in it) marks a shift in Niccol’s leadership style: Shortly after he took the reins at Chipotle, he moved the Mexican grill’s headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach, right where he lives.
Niccol's master plan: 'Back to Starbucks'
Niccol dubbed his to-do list, which he published during his first week in the corner office, as the “Back to Starbucks” plan.
In it, he outlined his four main priorities:
- Empowering baristas with the “tools and time” to deliver exceptional customer experience. (This includes beefing up their career advancement opportunities, he wrote but made no mention of Starbucks’ ongoing union battles.)
- Tackling the morning rush, getting customers their food and drinks “on time, every time.”
- Reestablishing Starbucks as “the community coffeehouse,” defined by spaces that “invite [customers] to linger.”
- Telling Starbucks’ story, and redefining the brand and its community role on its own terms.
To pull each of these off, Niccol wrote, the company will invest in technology, improve its supply chain, and upgrade its app and mobile ordering offerings.
Tough numbers
These changes are more pressing than a swanky new head office, as Starbucks’ fourth-quarter earnings, released last week, painted a dire picture: Same-store sales dropped 6% year-over-year, international same-store sales dropped 9%, consolidated revenue dropped 3% year-over-year, and foot traffic dropped 10%.
On the company earnings call—Niccol’s first—he called the financial results “very disappointing.”
“It is clear we need to fundamentally change our strategy to win back customers and return to growth,” Niccol said, referring to his Back to Starbucks agenda as the “fundamental change.”
To regain its footing, he said, the brand must focus on what sets it apart: Its identity as “a welcoming coffee house where people gather and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas.”
