Starbucks to open first corporate office in India for tech operations

By Daniela Sirtori

 

Starbucks Corp. is planning to open a technology office in India as the coffeehouse chain seeks to cut $2 billion in costs. 

The new hub is slated for the company’s fiscal year 2027, which starts in October, according to a message sent to workers and seen by Bloomberg News. It will be the company’s first corporate office in India, and Starbucks expects to start recruiting there once it settles on a site later this year. 

 

Starbucks is looking to bring some roles that were being done by third-party contractors back in-house, according to the message from Chief Technology Officer Anand Varadarajan. The company had outsourced those positions during an earlier restructuring before reversing course recently.

   

Starbucks is focused on “reducing reliance on external service providers,” Varadarajan wrote in the message. “Establishing a multi-site structure is a meaningful step toward that goal.”

 

He has previously said that third-party technology providers charge a markup, and that Starbucks would instead like to omit the middleman.

 

The company currently works with technology providers in multiple countries, including India, he wrote. The goal of bringing those roles back in-house is to “build closer connection to the work and the teams delivering it,” a spokesperson for Starbucks said Friday. 

 

Starbucks said last month that 270 technology roles — or about 20 per cent of its tech labour force — would move to a new office in Nashville, Bloomberg reported. The company also laid off some tech workers.

 

Starbucks has cut more than 2,000 jobs since February of last year, including 300 this week.