Message from Brian – Evolving Our Mission

Partners, 

Happy New Year! And thank you again for your hard work over the busy holiday season. I also want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone assisting our teams and the communities affected by the devastating wildfires in Southern California. To all our partners in the area, know we’re here for you and will do all we can to provide care, comfort, and support.

Over the past few months, we’ve refocused on what has always set Starbucks apart — a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas.  

Evolving our mission 

As we work to get “Back to Starbucks,” it’s important to be clear about who we are and the role we play in the world. That’s why we are updating our mission statement to better reflect this.

Our new mission is: 

Our name, Starbucks Coffee Company, also captures our role. Coffee reflects our commitment to source, roast and serve the highest-quality coffee, and Company captures our role in bringing people together to inspire and nurture the human spirit.     

Drawing on our heritage 

These ideas and words should feel familiar, and for good reason. As we look forward, we are drawing on our heritage: 

• Our first mission statement from 1990 was clear: “Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world.” This still reflects our commitment to delivering the highest quality coffee from bean to cup. Nobody else has the depth of expertise and the commitment we have.   
• In 2008, we updated our mission to reflect our role as a community coffeehouse: “We inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” This continues to be the role our green apron partners and coffeehouses play around the world. 

As we work to get “Back to Starbucks,” we’re drawing on this inspiration to clearly and simply re-articulate our mission.   

Our values and our promises  

Our values and promises guide our actions and the impact we strive to have. Our values, developed with input from hundreds of partners, aren’t changing. We will be uncompromising in our focus on: Craft, Results, Courage, Belonging and Joy. Our promises to partners, farmers, communities, the environment and shareholders will also stay the same.  

We are updating our customer promise to align with our mission and our “Back to Starbucks” plan: to “serve the world’s finest coffee, with a moment of connection.” 

Reflecting on our partner promise 

Importantly, our partner promise remains to, “bridge to a better future.” From the start, Howard emphasized the importance of taking care of our partners so they can care for our customers.  

It’s why everything we do starts and ends with our green apron partners. It’s also why I’m committed to ensuring Starbucks is the best job in retail, why we recently expanded paid parental leave and why we continue to offer health care and stock options for part-time work. More than 75% of partners work 20 hours a week, or more, and are eligible for our best in retail benefits. 

We also aim to build strong career paths and create lasting economic opportunity for our partners. That’s why we plan to fill 90% of retail leadership roles internally in the next three years, helping thousands of partners grow their careers and incomes. 

Our new mission and evolved customer promise are important steps in our work to get “Back to Starbucks.” I hope you’re proud of our progress and where we’re headed in 2025. Thank you for all you do. 

On we go, 

Brian Niccol 
chairman and chief executive officer