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The Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Made $96 Million Working Remote, and Is About To Lay Off Employees

Austin Smith

Published: February 5, 2025 2:19 pm

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

• Despite working just five months and over seeing weak earnings, falling same-store sales, and operational issues, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) CEO Brian Niccol received a $96 million salary package included a private plane.
• Starbucks is ceding to rivals like Dunkin’ and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD)
• Changing customer tastes toward energy drinks over regular coffee are hurting Starbuck’s core product.
• Also: most banks pay little to no interest, but one is paying 7-10x the national average, AND paying out $300 cash bonuses for new accounts today. Click here to learn more now. 

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Transcript:

[00:00:04] Doug McIntyre: It’s proxy season. So very soon we get to see what all the CEOs in America. Super big public company and people will cry and ash their teeth. The new thing I love is, is that they show the CEO’s comp compared to the median pay of the people who work at the company, usually like a thousand one. Now I’m going to tell you the best one.

[00:00:29] Doug McIntyre: The worst pay package from the standpoint of investors and the media is already out. We don’t have to wait. Okay We don’t have to wait. It’s out.

[00:00:38] Lee Jackson: No, we don’t.

[00:00:39] Doug McIntyre: Brian Niccol. Brian Niccol Who’s the brand new came in September? CEO of Starbucks Made 96 million dollars Okay. He’s only been there for five months.

[00:00:52] Doug McIntyre: He just got there. He announced about it two weeks ago that in March, he’s going to tell people what the layoffs are. Right. And he’s got this package. Plus he doesn’t have to go live in Seattle. He lives in New Port Beach. Right. So what they’ve done is they’ve also given him an airplane. So he gets $96 million. He gets a plane.

[00:01:16] Doug McIntyre: Now it’s not his fault, but the earnings that came out. Right after he joined are, are what he faces. Revenue down, EPS down, US same store sales down seven or 8%, China sales down 12 to 14 percent on comparable store sales. So the US and China are 61 percent of their revenue. So this guy has to fix China, which with luck and coffee, which is their competition over there.

[00:01:47] Doug McIntyre: There’s a Chinese company here.

[00:01:48] Lee Jackson: Yeah, it’s fine.

[00:01:49] Doug McIntyre: They have like, they have like three times as many stores as Starbucks. Not they’re going to continue to take a pounding in China period. It’s you have somebody who’s three X, your size, forget it. In the United States, he’s already admitted that they have a service problem.

[00:02:07] Doug McIntyre: Yeah. People wait too long. Way too long. They don’t consider it a community store or whatever it is. Apparently the baristas aren’t friendly enough. They’re surly. Right. And I think this is true everywhere. If I go into a Starbucks and I wait, 40 minutes to get my frappuccino.

[00:02:29] Doug McIntyre: I am not coming back. In other words, that’s a lost, that’s a lost customer. That person went to Dunkin Donuts. Yeah. Okay. They’re over there getting their coffee, which probably tastes better anyway, according to like consumer reports. Right. You think it’s better. You’re getting your Dunkin Donuts. You’re getting your, your nice coffee over there.

[00:02:50] Doug McIntyre: Same guy, or you’re getting in the car and driving through the McDonald’s and you’re getting the hot, the hot cakes with those sausages and everything. Eat while you’re sitting in your car. And so his problem is in the United States is it’s a conquest problem. He’s got all these people have left now. He has to bring in conquest customers.

[00:03:12] Doug McIntyre: These are basically new customers. who moved from someplace else or never drank coffee before they woke up one day and said I’ve got to go to Starbucks.

[00:03:21] Lee Jackson: And the young people, Doug, they’re more into energy drinks in the morning than they are a cup of java.

[00:03:29] Doug McIntyre: So I’m going to give Brian one thing in his favor.

[00:03:31] Doug McIntyre: Some of this award was because he gave up on his, Chipotle. I think option. So they’re giving him a little something for that. But listen, even if he got paid a dollar for the first four or five months, once you don’t, once you get a plane and stuff, it’s like, come on, well, at least wait a year till you get your, your, your you got that.

[00:03:55] Doug McIntyre: And, and here’s the other thing. Starbucks is one of these companies that had the, the back to work. Deal. Right. You know, everybody, you gotta go. You gotta go into the office. And so how do you feel if you’re told. You worked from home, but you got to go to the office. But the CEO lives in Newport Beach and he comes up on a private plane.

[00:04:15] Doug McIntyre: I think from a route, more of a morale standpoint, it’s like, are you, are you out of your mind? So

[00:04:22] Lee Jackson: Especially if you’re the other people in the C suite with the, you know, the CFO and all these other high ranking Starbucks people, they’re probably like, Oh, this isn’t so great. And remember 30 years ago, I remember when I, when I worked at Bear Stearns, I would stop at the Starbucks on the way into Dallas and it, there was an allure to Starbucks 30 years ago, and it was kind of a hip place to go for young baby boomer guys.

[00:04:49] Lee Jackson: Not anymore. People don’t care. It

[00:04:51] Doug McIntyre: is, it, it, it isn’t anymore. So Brian, we haven’t seen a single proxy beyond your pay package. And I’m gonna say to you right now, I’m prepared to say it’s the most outrageous pay package without seeing. Any of the other S&P 500 (NYSEARCA: VOO) pay packages.

[00:05:07] Lee Jackson: Yeah, I agree. And you know, what’s interesting is, is I, we’ve discussed this, you know, recently that, they’ve started doing a whole sort of branding, commercial chain that they started during the holidays.

[00:05:19] Lee Jackson: And they were good. You know, they kind of warmed you back up to the friendly people that are there. But it doesn’t matter. The coffee always tastes a little burned and, and people just, it’s too expensive and they’d rather go other places. And there’s a lot of regional places. Doug, like you said, like, like, up in the east, well, there’s, there’s dunk Dunkin Donuts here in Mississippi and in the south, but there’s also. And all these other local places.