By Waylon Cunningham
-In Director of Starbucks Technology, Deb Hall, Lefevre, resigned without a permanent replacement, according to an internal memorandum sent to the corporate staff on Monday, seen by Reuters.
The memorandum, written by Financial Director Cathy Smith, called Ningyu Chen, formerly senior vice president of Global Experience Technology, as an interim technology director.
Lefevre, a former McDonald’s executive, was hired in May 2022 as part of the chain approach to improve its entry, mobile orders and other systems. The memorandum said he planned to retire.
“Our technological priorities are not changing,” said the memorandum. “We are focused on the technological work necessary to deliver our return plan to the Starbucks Plan.”
Lefevre did not respond to an immediate request for comments on Thursday night.
The global coffee chain in recent months has introduced several technological initiatives, including an automated inventory counter with AI that is in the process of being launched to all stores owned by the company in North America at the end of September. Other initiatives include an AI assistant for Baristas and a new point of sale system.
On Thursday, the company said it would close low performance stores in the United States. Its general count of US stores and Canada, owned by the company, is expected to fall by 1%, and several hundred stores are expected to close for the end of fiscal year 2025. He also said that 900 roles that are not of unrecupic tail would be eliminated, and the affected employees are notified on Friday.
Technological initiatives are part of a corporate change called “Back To Starbucks” pursued by CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm last year to revive the fortunes of the chain. Its objective is to revive the appeal of “cafeteria” of the chain after six consecutive quarters of sales decreases.
The February layoffs of Starbucks of 1,100 corporate employees hit the particularly hard IT team, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday. They said that an external contractor named Tata Consultancy Services, based in India, has received an increasing role in the TI division of Starbucks.
Starbucks in a statement on Friday said the company “will continue to have a very significant internal technology team, but the approach is in the most important capabilities and the most important work.”
Starbucks in a statement on Friday said the company “will continue to have a very significant internal technology team, but the approach is in the most important capabilities and the most important work.”
The shares have lost more than 12% of their value in the last 12 months, compared to a 16% increase in the 500 Broad Market Standard & Poor’s index.
(Waylon Cunninghamediting report by Nick Zieminski)
(Tagstotranslate) Starbucks (T) Technology Director (T) Deb Hall Lefevre (T) Internal Memo
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