Business slumps due to boycott, Starbucks Middle East lays off 2,000 employees!

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Jakarta –

Retail giant AlShaya Group, which holds the Starbucks license in the Middle East, plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees.

This step was taken because business conditions continued to decline due to the public boycott which accused Starbucks of being pro-Israel which had recently attacked Gaza.

The company carried out layoffs last week. The 2,000 employees or about 4% of AlShaya’s total workforce of nearly 50,000 people are mostly concentrated in Starbucks franchises in the Middle East and North Africa.

When confirmed, AlShaya confirmed that this step of layoffs was being taken, even though it was difficult to carry out. “As a result of continued challenging trading conditions over the past six months, we have made the difficult decision to reduce the number of associates in our Starbucks stores,” AlShaya said in a statement, quoted by , Wednesday (6/3/2024).

Meanwhile, a Starbucks spokesperson said that the company would help its colleagues who were affected and remained committed to helping in this operational area.

“Our thoughts are with the green apron partners who will be impacted, and we want to thank them for their contributions. Starbucks remains committed to working with AlShaya to drive long-term growth in this important region,” added a Starbucks spokesperson.

Founded in 1890 in Kuwait, AlShaya is one of the largest retail franchisees in the Middle East region with the rights to operate popular Western brands including The Cheesecake Factory and Shake Shack.

The company has had the rights to operate Starbucks coffee stores in the Middle East since 1999. The Starbucks unit operates approximately 2,000 stores in 13 countries, in the Middle East and North Africa, and Central Asia.

Apart from Starbucks, Western brands have been impacted by a largely spontaneous boycott campaign over Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip sparked by a deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7.

Following the boycott, Starbucks in October stated that it was a non-political organization and dismissed the rumors. Starbucks has also said that the Israel-Hamas war has hurt its business in the region.

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