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AlShaya Group, a Gulf retail firm that owns the operating rights of Starbucks in the Middle East and North Africa, will be laying off 2,000 employees of the franchise due to financial difficulties stemming from Gaza war-related boycotts.
According to Reuters, which quotes unnamed sources close to the matter, the layoffs will account for 4% of AlShaya's total workforce of almost 50,000 people. Most of the impacted employees are concentrated in the company’s Starbucks franchise in the Middle East and North Africa, the same source added.
«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 in a statement.
Although the reports did not specify if a chunk of the 2,000 Starbucks employees to be laid off will be Moroccan, the company has been struggling financially in the North African Kingdom too.
In December 2023, Moroccan media reported the departure of H&M and Starbucks, both operated by the AlShaya Group, from Morocco. AlShaya denied this, stating their commitment to Morocco and the continued operation of all Starbucks cafes there. It also stressed that it is making some changes to the management of its H&M stores in the Kingdom, which closed shortly after in Casablanca but remained in operation in Marrakech and Rabat.
It is worth mentioning that US private equity firm Apollo Global Management is reportedly in talks to buy a minority stake in the Starbucks franchise operated by the AlShaya Group in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.
