Starbucks Shakes Up Management, Plans To Offer New Retail Concepts

Starbucks announced on Monday (July 25) changes to its management structure in an effort to open new retail concepts, such as “upscale” coffee shops and bakeries.

According to Reuters, Cliff Burrows, who has headed Starbucks Americas business for the past eight years, will transition to the head of a new group known as Siren Retail — named after the siren in the Starbucks logo — that will be responsible for Starbucks’ Teavana retail locations.

Burrows and Siren Retail will also oversee Starbucks’ Roastery stores (a store even more dedicated to the “art” of coffee), as well as its Reserve stores, which sell small-lot coffees, and its new Princi bakery locations.

Starbucks announced in April plans to open its second Roastery location — the first one is in Starbucks’ hometown of Seattle — in a 20,000-square-foot mega-store in New York City’s hip and trendy Meatpacking District; the new store would be the largest Starbucks location in the world.

On July 13, Starbucks announced that it had invested in Princi, an Italian boutique café and bakery founded by Rocco Princi in 1986, known for its “artisan breads created from traditional family recipes.”

There are currently five Princi locations in Milan and London, but Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said the plan is for Princi to become the “exclusive food purveyor” at all Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Rooms locations once they open.

“We have never baked in our stores in 45 years. But all of that will change with the creation of this unique partnership,” Schultz said in a statement. “Rocco and his team at Princi possess a passion for handcrafted food and artisanal baked goods that mirrors how I feel about our coffee. The attention to detail, the care invested in selecting the ingredients and the artistry of preparation is second only to the service Rocco offers customers inside his Princi stores. I can think of no better pairing for our most premium coffee experience and am excited by the possibilities we envision in Princi food elevating every daypart — breakfast, lunch and dinner — in Starbucks Roasteries and Reserve Stores.”