Starbucks plans to hire 25,000 vets by 2025

SEATTLE — Starbucks’ annual meeting Wednesday in Seattle — its last with Howard Schultz as CEO — featured quite a few patriotic touches, perhaps a reaction to the furor surrounding Schultz’s decision to hire 10,000 refugees worldwide over the next five years.

The meeting opened with a singing of the national anthem by members of Starbucks’ employee choir, joined by the Seattle Recruiting Battalion Color Guard. Attending military personnel, veterans and military spouses were invited to stand.

Some 3,300 Starbucks employees, shareholders and guests were at the annual extravaganza, where the company generally recaps notable accomplishments of the past year, outlines its direction for the next year, and welcomes a surprise guest star.

At the meeting, the company emphasized its hiring goals, saying it would hire more veterans and young Americans looking for better opportunities, while holding firm to its decision to employ 10,000 refugees globally over the next several years.

Starbucks has seen no “brand dilution” nor hits to Starbucks’ core business or reputation because of its decision to hire refugees, Schultz said.

The company announced at the meeting that:

• Its previously stated plan to open 12,000 new stores globally over the next five years will result in more than 240,000 jobs worldwide. That includes 3,400 stores, representing 68,000 jobs, in the U.S.

• It has reached its goal of hiring 10,000 U.S. military veterans and active-duty spouses a year ahead of schedule. The company set a new, expanded goal of hiring a total of 25,000 veterans and military spouses by 2025. It also plans to dedicate 100 more military family stores — Starbucks stores located close to military bases and operated by veterans and their supporters — across the U.S. in the next five years.

• It has exceeded its goal of hiring by 2018 10,000 young Americans who aren’t employed or in school, to help them enter the workforce. Starbucks said it has already hired 40,000 such youths, and has expanded its hiring goal to 100,000 by 2020.

• It will team up with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the U.N.’s refugee agency), the International Rescue Committee, Tent Foundation, and No One Left Behind to reach its goal of hiring 10,000 refugees worldwide by 2022. Starbucks will work with the organizations to reach refugee candidates, provide skills training and connect candidates to job opportunities. Schultz said at the meeting Wednesday that the company decided to hire refugees because “not every decision in business is an economic one.”

The company also said it would expand its partnership with Arizona State University to offer more individualized help to applicants who need additional assistance in meeting admission requirements.