The man who built Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) into the world’s largest coffee chain has announced that he will step down as chief executive of the coffee firm for the second time next April.
Howard Schultz – whose love affair with the Starbucks brand dates back over 30 years – told investors that he will be handing the reins over to his right-hand man, Kevin Johnson.
Shares fell by almost 3% in pre-market trading, with investors concerned about what impact Schultz's departure might have.
He isn’t going far though, and will continue to remain as Starbucks’ executive chairman, focusing on the firm’s premium roaster and the retail store business.
Schultz – dubbed the Steve Jobs of the coffee world by some commentators – first stepped down as chief executive back in 2000, before returning to the position in 2008 to guide the struggling brand through the financial crisis.
The company has opened up more than 25,000 stores around the world since he bought it out for just a few million bucks back in the late ‘80s.
The man who will take over from the billionaire next April, Johnson, has been on the Starbucks board for seven years, although he only joined as President last year.
He’s often thought of as the ‘tech-savvy’ brains behind the operation having spent more than a decade working for Microsoft, and is also credited with the success of Starbucks’ mobile app.
Howard Schultz started working for Starbucks back in the early 1980s but grew frustrated at the lack of ambition and left to found his own coffee house.
A couple of years later, he was offered the chance to buy the Starbucks brand for the relatively small sum of around US$3.8mln, which he duly opted to do.
The rest, as they say, is history.