Starbucks selloff happening in Europe
SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks is restructuring its European operations after several years of slowing sales.
The Seattle-based chain is selling 83 company-owned stores in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to its longtime partner, Alsea. Alsea will also provide services to 177 other Starbucks locations in those countries which are owned by franchisees.
Mexico City-based Alsea already operates more than 900 Starbucks stores in Mexico and South America.
The deal is similar to one Starbucks made in 2016, when it sold off its stores in Germany. Starbucks also plans to close offices in Amsterdam and consolidate its European headquarters in London. The closure will impact 186 employees, who will be encouraged to apply to open jobs in London.
Starbucks will retain a roasting plant in the Netherlands.
Labrador hydro plant sends 500 home
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. (CP) — Newfoundland’s Crown-owned utility says it has directed the main contractor at the Muskrat Falls hydro-electric megaproject site to stop work.
In an emailed statement Thursday, Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall says the move was made because of the inability of Italian contractor Astaldi Canada to continue to pay its workers.
He says the immediate priority is to make arrangements for the company’s 500 workers living at the Muskrat Falls site in Labrador to return home in a “safe and orderly fashion.”
The $12.7-billion, 824-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the lower Churchill River will send power to Newfoundland and later Nova Scotia through subsea cables.
Shell’s name dropped from credit union
CALGARY (CP) — Shell’s name is being removed from a tiny, 65-year-old employee credit union as its visibility in the Alberta oil and gas industry continues to shrink in the wake of the sale of most of its oilsands assets last year.
The rebranding of Shell Employees’ Credit Union as Spark the Energy Credit Union (the initials stay the same) was celebrated Thursday at its only branch on the main floor of Shell Canada’s downtown Calgary headquarters.
It follows a vote in June in which members who own the credit union voted 96 per cent in favour of moving to a brand that would allow growth by being more inclusive of a broader energy market.
The change is linked to the oilsands sale because that event resulted in thousands of Shell members switching to work for the buyer, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.