SEATTLE — Starbucks Corp. has announced its Board of Directors chairman Howard Schultz is retaking the company's helm, replacing Jim Donald, who is leaving the company.
On Starbucks' homepage, Schultz has penned a letter to customers announcing his return and thanking them for their business.
As chairman and chief executive officer, Schultz will be responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company, with a predominant focus on everything that touches the customer.
He served as chief executive officer of the company from 1987 to 2000. During that period, Starbucks went public in 1992 and experienced exceptional U.S. and international growth. From 2000 onward, in his role as chairman, Schultz focused on the company's global strategies and expansion, which now includes a significant and growing presence in 43 countries.
"I am enthusiastic about returning to the role of chief executive officer for the long term and excited to lead Starbucks and its dedicated partners (employees) to even greater heights of achievement on a global basis," Schultz said in a news release.
Schultz stated that his agenda will include:
- Improving the current state of the U.S. business by refocusing on the customer experience in stores, new products and store design elements, and new training and tools for company store partners;
- Slowing the company's pace of U.S. store openings and closing a number of underperforming U.S. store locations;
- Re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers and restoring the connections customers have with Starbucks coffee, brand, people and stores;
- Re-aligning Starbucks organization and streamlining the management to better support customer-focused initiatives and reallocating resources to key value drivers;
- Accelerating expansion and increasing the profitability of Starbucks outside the U.S., including the redeployment of a portion of the capital originally earmarked for U.S. store growth to the international business.
Starbucks will provide further details about its updated store growth strategy and other actions during its 2008 first quarter earnings call Jan. 30, 2008.
The company also has ended its marketing pact with XM Radio, the Associated Press reported. The agreement included music promotions in the coffee chain's stores and CDs sold with both companies' logos.
