Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson to Step Down; Howard Schultz to Return in Interim Role

Mr. Schultz, who preceded Mr. Johnson and presided over a lot of the chain’s enlargement, will function interim CEO, Starbucks mentioned.

Mr. Johnson thanked Starbucks workers in a letter deliberate to be despatched Wednesday, and mentioned the corporate was fortunate to have Mr. Schultz step in because it seeks a brand new long-term CEO.

Starbucks shares rose 5% to $87 in premarket buying and selling Wednesday morning.

Mr. Johnson first signaled to firm administrators round a yr in the past that he was fascinated with retiring, and hoped to take action when the pandemic wound down, Starbucks board Chairwoman

Mellody Hobson

mentioned. His choice to go away was his personal, not the results of any board or exterior push, Ms. Hobson mentioned.

“It’s been deliberate,” Ms. Hobson mentioned in an interview Tuesday. “This isn’t hasty in any manner.”

Starbucks’s board employed govt search agency Russell Reynolds Associates final yr to assist plan for Mr. Johnson’s potential departure, the corporate mentioned. Starbucks mentioned it hopes to decide on a brand new CEO by the autumn. The corporate has recognized a listing of potential candidates, searching for executives with worldwide and public firm expertise, Ms. Hobson mentioned.

Mr. Johnson, 61 years previous, leaves Starbucks after seven years on the world’s largest espresso chain, serving as chief working officer earlier than taking up as CEO in April 2017. Mr. Johnson beforehand was a know-how govt at

Microsoft Corp.

and

Juniper Networks Inc.,

and joined the Starbucks board in 2009. Starbucks valued Mr. Johnson’s know-how expertise, and his enter on the chain’s digital ordering techniques has boosted the corporate’s worth, Ms. Hobson mentioned.

Starbucks was one of many first American restaurant chains to really feel the pandemic’s influence in its China market in early 2020. Because it closed cafes throughout Covid-19 lockdowns, Starbucks’s same-store gross sales fell for the primary time in additional than a decade.

In June 2020, the corporate sped up plans to completely shut a whole bunch of U.S. shops to pave the best way for extra to-go and drive-through areas. Starbucks’s gross sales recovered from the pandemic final yr. The corporate recorded $29.1 billion in gross sales for its final fiscal yr, up from $22.4 billion in 2017 after Mr. Johnson took over.

Starbucks’s shares are down 24% previously 12 months, whereas a Normal & Poor’s index of restaurant shares has declined 5% throughout the identical interval. Wall Road analysts have mentioned that rising wage, coaching, provide and different prices are prone to weigh on Starbucks’s income within the close to time period.

Mr. Johnson has mentioned that spending on extra wages and advantages will enhance the corporate’s long-term efficiency.

A self-described espresso addict who favors triple espressos, Mr. Johnson graduated from New Mexico State College with a bachelor’s diploma in enterprise administration and labored at

Worldwide Enterprise Machines Corp.

earlier than becoming a member of Microsoft.

He was recruited to Starbucks by Mr. Schultz to behave as a prime lieutenant in 2015. Inside two years, Mr. Schultz stepped down and Mr. Johnson turned CEO.

Now Mr. Schultz, 68 years previous, is returning for his third stint heading Starbucks. He stepped down as Starbucks CEO in 2000, and returned in 2008 as the corporate sought to enhance its efficiency. Mr. Schultz, who flirted with a run for U.S. president as an impartial in 2019, presently heads his household’s basis and is concerned in philanthropy.

Mr. Schultz isn’t anticipated to remain completely, Ms. Hobson mentioned. She mentioned she anticipated Mr. Schultz to take care of the corporate’s tradition because it transitions to a brand new chief, and to voice his opinions.

“We would like the complete deal,” mentioned Ms. Hobson, who has described Mr. Schultz as a good friend and mentor.

Starbucks mentioned in a submitting Wednesday it can pay Mr. Schultz a greenback in base wage and permit him to take part within the firm’s worker profit plans. He gained’t obtain different compensation or advantages, Starbucks mentioned.

Starbucks has confronted essentially the most severe U.S. unionization drive in its historical past previously yr as some employees have agitated for higher pay and situations. Mr. Johnson has appealed to employees to let the corporate preserve its direct relationship with them. Greater than 130 of Starbucks’s 9,000 U.S. firm cafes have petitioned to unionize, and since late 2021, six areas have voted for illustration by the Starbucks Staff United union.

Mr. Schultz traveled to Buffalo final yr to handle Starbucks employees in particular person earlier than the primary cafes voted on unionization. Throughout a roughly hourlong tackle, Mr. Schultz spoke concerning the chain’s founding and its modern-day operations.

A number of Starbucks buyers, collectively representing greater than $1 billion value of Starbucks shares, requested the corporate Tuesday to stop any antiunion communications with workers, to undertake a coverage of neutrality towards employees searching for to prepare and to barter with unionized cafes in good religion. The buyers, led by Trillium Asset Administration, beforehand wrote to Starbucks in December to precise considerations over the corporate’s preliminary response to the union push. Trillium says it focuses in its investing on environmental, social and governance issues.

Starbucks had no fast response to the brand new letter.

Starbucks mentioned final yr it could increase barista pay. A wage improve now underneath manner, together with two beforehand introduced will increase, had been slated to represent a further $1 billion in spending on workers. The corporate’s inventory fell final October after Mr. Johnson instructed buyers that its most up-to-date pay improve would depress revenue margins this yr.

Starbucks shareholders rejected the espresso firm’s govt compensation proposal final yr, and proxy-advisory companies had advisable shareholders vote towards the pay resolutions. The compensation proposal included a one-time bonus to Mr. Johnson of $1.86 million.

Starbucks’s board had agreed in late 2019 to offer Mr. Johnson with a three-year retention bonus of as much as $50 million if he helped to spice up the corporate’s inventory to established targets and remained at Starbucks by means of the tip of its 2022 fiscal yr. Starbucks mentioned the efficiency award will probably be decided this September, and presently it anticipated to not pay it to Mr. Johnson.

Starbucks mentioned in a submitting forward of its annual assembly Wednesday that it reached out to shareholders following the advisory vote on pay, and would now not make future long-term efficiency awards in money. The corporate additionally elevated disclosure round its incentive awards, it mentioned.

Mr. Johnson navigated nationwide consideration introduced on by the arrests of two Black males sitting at a Philadelphia Starbucks in 2018, together with rising competitors for the chain from each decrease and higher-end espresso homes. He centered the corporate’s operations on its U.S. and China markets, offered off different markets to licensees and struck a deal with

Nestlé SA

to promote Starbucks merchandise globally.

Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com