Howard Schultz will step down as Starbucks chief executive – again.
In April, the company said on Thursday, Schultz will become “executive chairman”, and the Kevin Johnson, chief operating officer, will step up to replace him.
Shares of the coffee retailer’s stock took a sharp dive on the news in after-hours trading, dropping 3.3% to $56.78.
Schultz, who will remain chairman of the board, will devote time to furthering a “social impact agenda”, he said in a call with investors. His duties will also include developing new technologies for Starbucks stores, like the company’s recent foray into carbonated “nitro” cold brew.
In 2000, Schultz left the CEO position after running the company since 1987; in early 2008 he returned to steer it through the financial crisis after the company lost half its value on the stock market over the course of a single year.
The coffeehouse chain’s current situation is different from its position eight years ago, Schultz said, because the 2016 management team was better-suited to the challenges of the market than 2008’s senior staff had been.
The move is not entirely a surprise. Schultz stepped down from a seat on the board he will now chair in 2013, and rumors about his political aspirations have circulated for some time. A spokeswoman for the company dismissed them.
“Howard has long said that we need to stop looking to Washington DC for wisdom and inspiration, and instead look for it in our cities and towns, in businesses and community organizations, and in one another,” she told the Guardian. Schultz “has no plans to run for political office, as he has said many times, and will remain with the company”, she said.
In his new position, Schultz will shift focus to “retail innovation”, the company said in a press release. Schultz said that he was “delighted” Johnson would take over his duties and said he would focus on finding “the balance between profit and conscience” with the company’s veteran-hiring programs and its anti-poverty programs.
“I think we can all agree, Republican or Democrat, that there’s a lot of people being left behind and that companies can do more for the communities they serve and for the people they employ,” Schultz told investors.
Schultz has been a very public CEO. The coffee executive had been vocally political during the 2016 election season, telling CNN’s Poppy Harlow, “I think it’s obvious that Hillary Clinton needs to be our next president” in September.
The company overwhelmingly contributed money to the Clinton campaign – nearly $65,000 to Trump’s $1,400 in contributions.
Schultz wrote a downbeat memo to staff when Trump won the election: “[L]ike so many of our fellow Americans – both Democrats and Republicans – I am stunned,” he wrote. “We cannot know what the precise impact will be on our country and the rest of the world,” Schultz wrote, though he said he was “hopeful that we will overcome the vitriol and division” of the season.
On the conference call, Schultz was more upbeat: “These are exciting times for us all,” he said.
