Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) has been one of the biggest food and beverage growth engines since McDonald’s. Year after year, it grew revenues and increased its store count in the U.S. and internationally. It would be foolish to say that Starbucks will never open another store. But now Starbucks is going to begin closing some of its underperforming stores. And more jobs are going to be eliminated. And there is a hefty price tag for this restructuring.
Starbucks has approved a corporate restructuring plan that involves closing coffeehouses and streamlining certain operations. The latter is code for eliminating certain jobs. The company had already approved an effort to trim 1,100 corporate jobs earlier in the year. Now another 900 jobs will be added to that tally.
The company’s press release calls the move a “Back to Starbucks” strategy to revitalize its stores and to improve its customer experience. The company’s target store closures were represented as follows:
As part of this strategy, the Company assessed its existing store portfolio with respect to both whether coffeehouses had a viable path to offering the physical environment consistent with the brand and a clear path to financial performance. It will close those coffeehouses that do not meet these criteria. As the Company works to build a stronger and more resilient Starbucks and prioritizes investment closer to the coffeehouse and the customer, the Company is also further restructuring its support organization.
This effort is going to cost Starbucks roughly $1 billion after including closures, support organization transformation and other restructuring activities. Starbucks is also allocating 90% of these expenses to its North American business.
Of that $ 1 billion in costs, about $150 million is related to employee separation benefits. Roughly $400 million of the total costs will be to cover the disposal and impairment of company-operated store assets. And another $450 million will be tied to accelerated amortization of ROU lease assets and other lease costs attributed to closing stores.
And of that $1 billion, its estimated non-cash charges were put at approximately $400 million (asset impairment and disposal) and the $600 million counted as future cash expenditures tied to employee separation benefits and lease exit costs.
With its stock at $84.27 as of the prior close, Starbucks shares were last seen trading down over 7% year-to-date and down over 12% versus a year ago. And longer term isn’t much better — Starbucks’s stock has not grown over the last 3-year and 5-year periods. Investors need to ask if they want to invest in a former growth company that isn’t quite a value stock. That’s a decision that is up to each investor individually. At least it offers nearly a 3% dividend yield based on the current share price.
