Starbucks reshuffling will trim its upper ranks

Starbucks plans to thin out its executive ranks as part of a corporate reshuffling that it hopes will help revitalize sales and hasten its growth overseas.

The global coffee behemoth will lay off some non-retail employees at the vice president and senior vice president level, a spokeswoman said this week. In a memo last week, CEO Kevin Johnson notified employees of a reorganization that is designed to help the company expand internationally, particularly in fast-growing markets like China.

“We must increase the velocity of innovation that is relevant to our customers, inspires our partners, and is meaningful to our business,” Johnson wrote in the note. “To accomplish this, we are going to make some significant changes to how we work as leaders in all areas of the company and how functional groups are structured to support our retail stores.”

Johnson, a veteran of several corporate shakeups while at Microsoft, did not detail his plans in the memo. Starbucks, which has about 5,000 employees at its corporate headquarters, declined to say how many people would be affected, or how many employees held the senior vice president or vice president titles.

The coffee chain, based in Seattle, employs 277,000 people globally, according to its most recent annual financial filing. Most of those employees work in Starbucks stores or support facilities.

The restructuring will conclude in mid-November.

Starbucks founder Howard Schultz stepped down as executive chairman in June. Later that month, the company announced that its chief financial officer, Scott Maw, would retire in November, sending the stock tumbling.

And Starbucks executives have outlined steps to improve sales growth, including plans to close up to 150 underperforming stores in the coming fiscal year, even as the company continues to open new stores.

The expansion plans are a counterweight to the company’s stagnant sales in the United States, where smaller, regional rivals have gained ground, and customer demand for Starbucks’ signature Frappuccino has waned. Same-store sales — one measure of performance — rose just 1 percent in the most recent fiscal quarter, a sign that the company must find new areas for growth at home and abroad.

This month, hundreds of Italians lined up to sample the espresso and cappuccino at the country’s first Starbucks cafe. The Seattle Times contributed

to this report.