Starbucks announces store closures in Switzerland

It is still unclear how many shops in Switzerland will be affected by the measure and how many employees could lose their jobs, the company said. Keystone-SDA

The US coffee chain Starbucks has announced store closures in Switzerland as part of its global cost-cutting measures. Locations with insufficient customer footfall or no economic prospects are affected.

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The company announced on Thursday that the aim is to focus its offering more strongly on profitable locations. It is still unclear how many shops in Switzerland will be affected by the measure and how many employees could lose their jobs, a spokesperson for the company told the news agency AWP.

Starbucks was operating a total of 57 coffee houses in early 2024.

It also remains unclear when the closures will take place. Where possible, affected employees will be transferred to other branches, the company said. Where this is not possible, Starbucks has announced support in the form of severance payments and other assistance.

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The measures are part of a broad global transformation for the company. In North America, for example, Starbucks expects the number of shops in operation to fall by around 1% in the current 2025 financial year. At the same time, however, new locations will be opened: In Europe, the company is planning 150 additional coffee houses in the current year, including a new opening in Interlaken at the beginning of 2026.

In addition to the store closures, Starbucks is also cutting jobs outside of retail. Around 900 non-store jobs are to be cut in the US in order to streamline the cost structure and channel more resources into the core business, CEO Brian Niccol wrote in a letter. He explained that the steps were necessary to make Starbucks more resilient and to be able to continue to grow in the long term.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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