Starbucks Pledges to Hire More U.S. Military Veterans
March 22 2017 - 5:45PM
Dow Jones News
By Julie Jargon
Starbucks Corp. plans to hire more U.S. military veterans and
their spouses after facing backlash over its promise to hire
refugees.
Presiding over his last annual shareholders meeting as chief
executive on Wednesday, Howard Schultz said Starbucks will hire
15,000 veterans and their spouses by 2025, on top of more than
10,000 hired since a pledge he made four years ago.
The new drive comes after some customers threatened to boycott
Starbucks for its January pledge to hire 10,000 refugees globally
over the next five years. The coffee giant made the commitment
following President Donald Trump's first executive order, banning
refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Brand-tracking firm YouGov BrandIndex says Starbucks's brand
perception levels have dropped by two-thirds since then. A
representative of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a
conservative think tank, criticized the company Wednesday for being
too political and asked Mr. Schultz about the reported reputational
hit.
Mr. Schultz said he didn't believe the company's reputation or
sales have suffered as a result of its refugee-hiring pledge. He
said Starbucks's stance on social issues "isn't based on politics
but on principles and core beliefs."
In addition to hiring more veterans, Starbucks pledged Wednesday
to hire more American young people who are unemployed or not in
school. The chain plans to hire an additional 60,000 such young
people by 2020.
Starbucks employs more than 250,000 people at 23,000 stores in
75 countries.
Mr. Schultz is stepping down as CEO to focus on a new subbrand
of luxury coffee shops within Starbucks. He said Wednesday that he
has carried a key to the first Starbucks at Pike Place Market in
Seattle in his pocket for more than 30 years. At the shareholders
meeting, he handed that key to Kevin Johnson, the operating chief
who will become CEO in April.
Write to Julie Jargon at julie.jargon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2017 17:30 ET (21:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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