Starbucks job cuts in region over Gaza war boycotts

The Gulf retail giant that owns the rights to operate Starbucks in the Middle East is cutting more than 2,000 jobs amid a massive consumer boycott over the coffee chain’s perceived support for Israel.

The job losses at AlShaya Group amount to about 4 percent of its workforce of almost 50,000 people and are mostly concentrated in its Starbucks franchise in the Middle East and North Africa.

“As a result of the continually challenging trading conditions over the last six months, we have taken the sad and very difficult decision to reduce the number of colleagues in our Starbucks MENA stores,” AlShaya said.

Starbucks said it was “committed to working closely with AlShaya to drive long-term growth in this important region.”

Many Western brands have been hit by a largely spontaneous, grassroots boycott campaign over Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Starbucks was forced to declare in October that it was a non-political organization, and dismissed rumors that it had provided support to the Israeli government or army.

The coffee chain then admitted in January that the war in Gaza had hurt its business in the region, and sales in the Middle East and the US had been significantly affected by the conflict.

Established in 1890 in Kuwait, AlShaya is one of the biggest retail franchise holders in the region with rights to popular Western brands including Cheesecake Factory and Shake Shack.

It has owned rights to operate Starbucks coffee shops in the Middle East since 1999. The Starbucks unit runs about 2,000 outlets in 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, and central Asia.