Raphael Stevens

Ford plans to halt production of the F-150 Lightning from mid-November until early January to address high inventories and narrow losses.
The shutdown will last from Nov. 18 until Jan. 6, including previously planned holiday downtime at the end of the year.
Ford on Monday said its Model e electric vehicle operations are expected to lose about $5 billion this year.

Ford workers produce the electric F-150 Lightning pickup at the automaker’s Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center on Dec. 13, 2022.
Michael Wayland | CNBC

DETROIT — Ford Motor plans to halt production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning from mid-November until early next year to address bloated inventories and narrow losses on the pickup trucks.
The automaker on Thursday confirmed the seven-week shutdown would occur at its Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in suburban Detroit from Nov. 18 until Jan. 6, including previously planned holiday downtime at the end of the year.

“We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” Ford said in an emailed statement.
The roughly 730 hourly workers at the Michigan plant will be placed on temporary layoff. Ford said not all of the workers will be laid off for the entire duration of the downtime. 
The canceled production, which was first reported by Automotive News, comes as sales of all-electric vehicles have not grown as quickly as many had expected amid higher costs and reluctant consumer adoption.

Sales of the F-150 Lightning are up 86% this year, but the company loses money on the vehicle and has been subsidizing sales. That includes a reported program offering dealers up to $1,500 for each 2024 F-150 Lightning they order from one of the automaker’s new regional electric vehicle distribution centers.
Ford on Monday said its Model e EV operations are expected to lose about $5 billion this year.

Ford executives have said the automaker’s next generation of EVs will be less costly than its current generation, and that it won’t launch a product unless it can be profitable within a year.
The production slowdown represents a fall from grace for the F-150 Lightning. Ford executives such as CEO Jim Farley once touted the vehicle as having the same importance as the Model T, but the company has moved to slashing planned output of the pickup in half to begin this year.
Ford’s overall days’ supply of new vehicles was 112 days as of the end of September, according to Cox Automotive. The F-150, including electric and traditional models, was at 100 days. Ford’s other EV models — Mustang Mach-E crossover and E-Transit van — were at 128 days and 112 days, respectively, Cox reports.
Ford has a target range of 50 days to 60 days of supply. More

Comcast said Thursday it has begun to explore a separation of its cable networks business.
The separation would not include the broadcast network NBC or streaming platform Peacock.
The comments came during Comcast’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday.

Brian Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer of Comcast NBCUniversal, during the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles, California, US, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Comcast is exploring a separation of its cable networks business, President Mike Cavanagh said Thursday.
During the company’s third-quarter earnings call with investors, Cavanagh said the company is exploring creating “a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks.”

The possible separation would not include broadcast network NBC nor streaming service Peacock, he added. NBCUniversal’s cable networks portfolio includes Bravo, E!, Syfy, Oxygen True Crime, USA Network, as well as news networks MSNBC and CNBC.
The company lost 365,000 cable TV customers during the third quarter.
“Like many of our peers in media, we are experiencing the effects of the transition in our video businesses and have been studying the best path forward for these assets,” Cavanagh said, according to preliminary transcript of the call from FactSet.
“We are not ready to talk about any specifics yet, but we’ll be back to you as and when we reach firm conclusions,” he said.
Shares of Comcast were up more than 6% in premarket trading.

The comments come as millions of customers continue to flee the traditional pay TV bundle in favor of streaming. Comcast has been beefing up Peacock, which got a boost during the third quarter when it exclusively aired the Summer Olympics in Paris.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
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Comcast reported third-quarter earnings before the bell.
The company beat on estimates as the Summer Olympics in Paris helped boost NBCUniversal’s revenue and Peacock’s subscriber count. 
Domestic broadband revenue grew despite continued slowing customer growth in the segment.

NBCUniversal kicks off it’s new Peacock streaming service.
Todd Williamson | Peacock | NBCUniversal | Getty Images

Comcast beat third-quarter earning expectations on Thursday, as the Summer Olympics in Paris boosted NBCUniversal’s revenue and Peacock’s subscriber count. 
Shares of Comcast gained 6% in premarket trading Thursday.

Here is how Comcast performed, compared with estimates from analysts surveyed by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.12 adjusted vs. $1.06 expected
Revenue: $32.07 billion vs. $31.66 billion expected

For the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income was down 10% to $3.63 billion, or 94 cents a share, compared with $4.05 billion, or 98 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell 2% to roughly $9.74 billion. Adjusting for one-time items, Comcast reported earnings per share of $1.12 for the quarter.
The company’s revenue rose 6.5% to $32.07 billion compared with the same period last year. Overall revenue was boosted by the Summer Olympics in Paris, which NBCUniversal exclusively broadcast in the U.S., and domestic broadband revenue — despite continued slowing customer growth. 
Revenue for the media segment – mainly comprised of NBCUniversal – was up nearly 37% to $8.23 billion, largely due to the Olympics. Excluding the Summer Games, revenue was up almost 5%. 
This more than offset the decrease in adjusted EBITDA for the media segment, due to higher operating expenses related to the Olympics, as well as higher programming costs at Peacock and in other sports TV programming. 

The Summer Olympics in Paris proved to be a success for NBCUniversal, as it attracted an average daily viewership of 31 million people across NBC’s TV and streaming platforms and generated a record $1.2 billion in advertising revenue, CNBC previously reported.
This boosted the overall revenue for the content and experiences segment – which also includes the theme parks and film studios – by 19.3% to roughly $12.6 billion. That total includes $1.9 billion of incremental revenue from the Paris Olympics. 
Peacock also enjoyed a boost from the Olympics – where the entirety of the Games were exclusively streamed – with 3 million added subscribers. Paid subscribers for the platform increased 29% year over year to 36 million. Peacock revenue was up 82% to $1.5 billion. 
Losses stemming from Peacock improved for the segment, with an adjusted EBTIDA loss of $436 million during the quarter, compared with $565 million in the same period last year. 
The company’s film studios, also part of the content and experiences segment, saw revenue increase 12.3% to $2.83 billion compared with the prior year. Theatrical revenue was boosted by the recent successful releases of “Despicable Me 4” and “Twisters.”
NBCUniversal’s theme parks revenue decreased 5.3% to roughly $2.3 billion due to lower attendance. The theme parks have weighed on the company recently as surging attendance following Covid lockdowns has cooled.
Meanwhile, the broadband unit – the cornerstone of Comcast’s business – continued to reflect the ongoing industry trends. 
Cable broadband customer growth has slumped across the industry. Comcast executives have pinned this on a slowdown in the buying and selling of homes. Competition has also ramped up from wireless providers like Verizon and T-Mobile.
For Comcast this quarter, it was a mixed bag. The government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which had offered a discount for qualifying low-income households, ended earlier this year.
Total domestic broadband net losses amounted to 87,000, but excluding those that stemmed from the end of the ACP, the company estimates there was growth of 9,000 customers.
Domestic broadband revenue increased 2.7% to $6.54 billion compared to the prior year, and average revenue per user – the continued source of growth for the segment despite lagging additions – increased 3.6%. 
Meanwhile, Comcast’s wireless business added 319,000 customers, bringing its total to about 7.5 million lines. The company lost 365,000 cable TV customers during the quarter. 
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

The U.S. Labor Department said about 44,000 U.S. workers were on strike at the time of its employment survey earlier this month.
Economists expect the U.S. to have added 100,000 jobs in the month.
The DOL’s jobs report on Friday will be its last before the Nov. 5 election.

Boeing workers gather on a picket line near the entrance to a Boeing facility during an ongoing strike on October 24, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. 
David Ryder | Getty Images

Boeing’s more than seven-week machinist strike is set to hit Friday’s U.S. jobs report — the last one that will be released before Nov. 5 presidential election and the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week. The company’s impending job cuts, meanwhile, will take months more to show up.
Some 44,000 U.S. workers were on strike when the Labor Department conducted its survey in mid-October. About 33,000 of them are Boeing machinists, who walked off the job on Sept. 13 after overwhelmingly voting against a union-endorsed labor contract and in favor of their first strike since 2008.

Economists expect the U.S. to have added 100,000 jobs in October. Bank of America this week forecast that payroll tallies will be at least 50,000 lower than they would have otherwise been because of the strikes and affects of both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said in an Oct. 14 speech that those factors could have a 100,000-job impact on the October report and called the reductions a “significant but temporary loss of jobs.” He said they “may have a small effect on the unemployment rate, but I’m not sure it will be that visible.”
Boeing’s machinist strike has complicated the plane maker’s already difficult position as its new CEO Kelly Ortberg tries to steer the giant U.S. manufacturer and exporter out of safety, quality and financial crises. The unionized machinists, mostly in the Seattle area, voted 64% against a new proposal last week, which included 35% wage increases, compared with a 25% wage increase in an earlier tentative agreement.

In an aerial view, a Boeing 737 Max fuselage is seen on a railcar during an ongoing strike by Boeing factory workers in Seattle on Oct. 24, 2024.
David Ryder | Getty Images

The Biden administration has gotten involved, urging the two sides to reach a deal.
“With the continued assistance of Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, your Union bargaining committee had a productive face-to-face meeting with the company to address key bargaining issues,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 said late Tuesday.

Su had met with both sides before the last proposal was brought to a vote on Oct. 23.
Boeing’s impact on U.S. employment numbers is set to continue. CEO Ortberg said earlier this month that the company will cut 10% of its global workforce, or 17,000 people, though job-loss warning letters aren’t expected to go out until mid-November.
Ortberg, who took over as CEO in early August, said Boeing needs to become leaner and focus on its core businesses.
“One of the things I’ve heard from a lot of employees is there’s just too much overhead. It slows them down in being able to get their work done,” he said on an Oct. 23 quarterly call. “So we’re going to really focus this workforce reduction in streamlining those overhead activities, consolidating things that can be consolidated.”
Layoffs and their announcements are more complicated to factor into federal employment surveys than strikes because “we don’t have a good sense of when they occur,” noted Bank of America economist Stephen Juneau.
The impact of the Boeing’s strike could lead to further cuts in the fragile aerospace supply chain.
Boeing fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems earlier this week put about 700 Wichita, Kansas, workers on a 21-day furlough. A spokesman for the company, which Boeing is in the process of acquiring, told CNBC last week that Spirit is considering hundreds of additional furloughs or layoffs if the Boeing strike lasts past Nov. 25. More

Peloton has tapped Ford executive Peter Stern to be its next CEO.
The longtime automotive executive was last overseeing Ford’s subscription services.

Peter Stern, CEO of Peloton Interactive.
Courtesy: Peloton Interactive

Peloton on Thursday said it has appointed Peter Stern, a Ford executive and the cofounder of Apple Fitness+ to be its next CEO and president. 
Stern, the president of Ford Integrated Services, primarily oversees the automotive company’s subscription services, such as BlueCruise, Pro Intelligence, connectivity and security. He also led the company’s digital product team. 

Stern is slated to step down from his role at Ford and take the helm of Peloton on Jan. 1. Interim co-CEO Karen Boone will stay in the role through the end of the calendar year, while her counterpart, Chris Bruzzo will step down from the co-CEO role on Friday. Both Boone and Bruzzo will stay on Peloton’s board.
Stern is the third CEO to lead Peloton in its history. The news came alongside Peloton’s fiscal first-quarter earnings report. Shares of the company jumped 20% in premarket trading.
“Peter is a seasoned strategist with a track record of driving sustainable growth through innovation, and we have every confidence in his ability to lead Peloton during this important time. He brings meaningful expertise in scaling differentiated technology-oriented platforms and has a deep understanding of the health and wellness sector – making him uniquely suited to serve as Peloton’s next CEO,” Jay Hoag, the Chairperson of Peloton’s board, said in a news release.
“What’s more, Peter embodies Peloton’s core values, including operating with a bias for action, empowering teams of smart creatives and working together.”
The announcement comes about six months after Peloton announced that former Spotify and Netflix executive Barry McCarthy would be stepping down after about two years on the job. 

McCarthy had taken over from founder John Foley and had worked to bring Peloton back from the brink of extinction by dramatically cutting costs and redirecting strategy. 

Peter Stern, CEO of Peloton Interactive.
Courtesy: Peloton Interactive

Peloton’s decision to hire Stern indicates that it is tripling down on the company’s main value proposition to investors at the moment: its high-margin, recurring subscription revenue. 
Stern’s background running Ford’s subscription business will likely assist in building out, and sustaining, Peloton’s connected fitness subscribers and app subscribers.
In a news release, Peloton said that it sought out a new CEO that appreciates and loves Peloton’s products, understands the company’s challenges and opportunities and is passionate about helping people achieve their fitness goals.
Stern was an early adopter of Peloton, having been a member since 2016, and “has spent over 20 years operating at the nexus of hardware, software, content and services at Ford, Apple and Time Warner Cable,” the company said.
As the cofounder of Apple Fitness+, he helped the vertical grow its subscription base into the millions and knows how to operate a “complex, subscription-based business,” Peloton said.
The company said it was also looking for a product innovator and strategist and pointed to the 30-plus patents Stern has secured over the years, including an online media content patent.
“Working for Peloton is a dream come true for me,” Stern said in a statement. “My goal is to help millions of people live longer, healthier and happier lives. Peloton, with its unique combination of people, products and passionate Members, provides me an opportunity to do just that.”
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

Peloton’s fiscal first-quarter results beat Wall Street’s expectations.
The connected fitness company raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance but posted a weaker-than-expected holiday forecast.
The Bike and Tread maker also announced a new CEO.

A Peloton bike is displayed at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store on May 08, 2024 in Daly City, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Peloton is back to generating free cash flow and is edging within reach of profitability as the connected fitness company reins in costs and looks to improve the unit economics behind its hardware, it said Thursday.  
Despite the progress, Peloton is expecting to lose more members and sell fewer bikes and treadmills than Wall Street analysts had expected during its all-important holiday quarter. 

Still, the stock rose 20% in premarket trading Thursday after the quarterly update and the announcement of a new CEO.
Here’s how Peloton did in its fiscal first quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: zero cents vs. 16 cents expected
Revenue: $586 million vs. $574.8 million expected

The company’s reported net loss for the three-month period that ended Sept. 30 was $900,000, or effectively breakeven on a per-share basis, compared with a net loss of $159.3 million, or 44 cents per share, during the same period a year earlier. 
Sales dropped to $586 million, down about 1.6% from $596 million a year earlier. 
As Peloton prepares for its holiday quarter, which is typically its strongest for hardware sales, the company is expecting revenue to come in between $640 million and $660 million, below Wall Street expectations of $671.4 million, according to StreetAccount. 

It’s also expecting to have fewer paid app subscribers than analysts had forecast, reflecting its decision to shift marketing dollars toward product development and away from its low-priced app — a key focus area of former CEO Barry McCarthy.
Peloton announced in May that McCarthy would be stepping down after roughly two years in the top job. On Thursday, the company said Ford executive Peter Stern would be taking over.
The company is expecting to have between 560,000 and 580,000 paid app subscribers by the end of its current quarter, compared with expectations of 608,200, according to StreetAccount.
During Peloton’s fiscal first quarter, it cut operating expenses by 30% compared with the previous year and posted nearly $116 million in adjusted EBITDA along with almost $11 million in free cash flow. 
It’s expecting adjusted EBITDA of between $20 million and $30 million during its current quarter, compared with StreetAccount EBITDA estimates of $13.9 million. 
For fiscal 2025, Peloton raised its full-year EBITDA guidance – a key metric that investors are watching to gauge the company’s future value. It said it’s now expecting to generate between $240 million and $290 million in adjusted EBITDA, compared with a previous range of $200 million and $250 million. It’s projecting revenue to be between $2.4 billion and $2.5 billion, on par with analyst expectations of $2.46 billion, according to LSEG. 
The gains are a result of a previously announced cost-cutting plan and the company’s efforts to improve the unit economics of its hardware, which had long been a money-losing business for the company. 
During the fiscal first quarter, Peloton raised the recommended retail price for its Bike and Bike+ in its international markets and increased the price of its Row in North America, while also cutting down on discounts across its hardware portfolio. 
Those efforts, along with a better mix between its various revenue streams, boosted its connected fitness margin to 9.2% during the most recent quarter – an increase of 6 percentage points compared with the year-ago period. 
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the chain will have to buy around 200,000 Sharpie markers for baristas as part of his plan to win back customers.
Some Starbucks customers think the coffee chain has drifted too far from its core, according to Niccol.
In the company’s latest quarter, traffic to its U.S. stores tumbled 10%.

Starbucks cups are pictured on a counter in Manhattan, New York, on Feb. 16, 2022.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the coffee chain plans to buy roughly 200,000 Sharpie markers as part of his plan to take the coffee chain back to its roots.
He’s betting that more personal touches — including bringing back Sharpies to write customer names or messages on cups — will bring customers back to cafes. For three consecutive quarters, the company has reported declining sales. In Starbucks’ latest quarter, reported Wednesday, traffic to its U.S. stores tumbled 10%.

Some customers think the coffee chain has drifted too far from its core, according to Niccol.

Read more news about Starbucks

While the company works on a more comprehensive turnaround strategy, Niccol unveiled some initial steps that the company is taking to rebuild the Starbucks brand in its home market. But even something as small as a marker isn’t an easy task for Starbucks, which has nearly 17,000 locations in the U.S.
“I thought the number I heard was something like close to 200,000 Sharpies we’ve got to track down,” Niccol said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just going to the Staples and picking up some Sharpies.”
Other changes coming to U.S. cafes include the return of ceramic mugs, condiment bars and cozy furniture.
Niccol, who joined the company in early September, said he wants the chain to become a “third place” again, referencing the concept of a place to work and socialize outside of the home or office.

For decades, Starbucks positioned itself as a place to linger, but the company has lost that sheen over the years.
Niccol is also aiming to improve staffing at stores and cut service times for every order to under four minutes.
Shares of Starbucks have risen roughly 1% this year, trailing the S&P 500’s gains of 22%. The company has a market cap of $110 billion.
— CNBC’s Jacqueline Corba contributed reporting for this story. More

Starbucks investors heard more details about CEO Brian Niccol’s plan to bring back customers to U.S. stores.
Many of the changes are meant to help Starbucks cut service times down to under four minutes.
To finance the turnaround, the coffee chain is planning to open fewer locations over the next fiscal year.

Brian Niccols, CEO of Starbucks, speaking with CNBC on Oct. 31st, 2024. 

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol shared more details about the company’s turnaround strategy during the company’s quarterly conference call on Wednesday.
For three straight quarters, Starbucks has reported declining sales. But the coffee chain is hoping that some easy tweaks to its U.S. business will pay off and help reverse the trend as it plots a more ambitious and comprehensive game plan.

Many of the coming changes are meant to help Starbucks achieve a smaller goal: delivering a customized drink to the customer in under four minutes. About half of current transactions are within that threshold, according to Niccol.

Read more news about Starbucks

As Starbucks focuses on the turnaround, the company is also planning fewer new locations and renovations in fiscal 2025 to free up capital, CFO Rachel Ruggeri told investors on the call.
Shares of Starbucks were flat in extended trading Thursday after the company reported that its revenue fell for the third straight quarter.
Here’s how Niccol plans to help Starbucks’ sales rebound:

Ending the disorder of mobile order and pay

Starbucks customers have become used to walking into a cafe and seeing a counter crowded with mobile orders. Niccol wants to change that.

“When it works well, it’s great, but sometimes it can be a challenge for both customers and partners,” he told investors on the company’s conference call.
Mobile orders account for more than 30% of Starbucks’ U.S. transactions.

Mobile order and Uber Eats and Doordash delivery pick up area at Starbucks coffee shop, Queens, New York. 
Lindsey Nicholson | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Niccol said Starbucks is working to improve the accuracy of the app’s timing, so customers know when their drinks are ready. Plus, he wants to better separate mobile order pickups from in-person ordering inside restaurants and curtail how much customers can customize their drinks.
“Right now, I think there’s some customization specifically in the mobile order app execution that’s just really wide and unnecessary,” Niccol told CNBC. “So I just think that we need to put better guardrails in place so that we get you access to customization that’s correct for the drink you’re ordering, and then also it allows our baristas to be more consistent with what they execute.”

Cutting back an ‘overly complex’ menu

Spain, Barcelona, Plaza de Francesc Macia, Starbucks, coffee shop customer ordering. 
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

The Starbucks menu will be getting a makeover.
Niccol said the coffee chain needs to focus on “fewer, better” offerings. Slimming down the menu will make it easier for baristas to make every drink consistently. It should also improve speed of service since they’ll have fewer drink recipes to remember.
“There’s always a long tail on the menu, and those items, frankly, we don’t execute all that great,” Niccol said, adding that baristas often take longer to make drinks that are unfamiliar.
Niccol said Starbucks would also be taking a look at the items that it wouldn’t have put on the menu if the four-minute standard was already in place.
While the changes may disappoint some customers, Niccol said he thinks that they’ll appreciate faster, more consistent service in the long run.

Making cafes more personal

As part of Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan, he wants the company’s locations to feel like “third places” for customers to work and socialize in outside of their homes and offices.
The coffee chain’s positioning as a “third place” helped it grow into a global behemoth, but somewhere along the way, it lost that reputation. Niccol said he wants to reintroduce more personal touches, like serving coffee in ceramic mugs to customers who choose to linger in cafes. Sharpies will also be making their triumphant return, after being supplanted by printed labels.
Starbucks is also reviewing its store designs, with a focus on bringing back more comfortable seating and amenities.

Customers sit at a Starbucks in Manhattan Beach, California, on July 19, 2024. 
Etienne Laurent | AFP | Getty Images

“The reality is the majority of what we have are these cafes that I think don’t have the right seats, potentially have the right texture, don’t have the right layers, don’t have the right warmth. We need to bring that back,” Niccol said.
In recent years, the company has rolled out more pickup-only locations, with little to no seating, particularly in urban areas. Niccol said even those cafes could be more welcoming to customers.
“I think there are design elements that can still bring forward this idea of a community coffeehouse, even in some of the executions that we’ve made that just don’t lend itself to putting the full, traditional coffeehouse experience,” he told CNBC.

Bringing back the condiment bars

Starbucks brown sugar sachets are seen in Starbucks Coffee in Krakow, Poland on November 4, 2022. 
Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images

In the early days of the Covid pandemic, Starbucks banished its condiment bars behind the counter. Since then, when customers want to add milk or sugar to their drinks — even a simple drip coffee — they have to ask baristas directly.
But that will change soon. Niccol said the condiment bars will reappear, freeing up more time for baristas and easing some customer headaches.

Better staffing in cafes

Merida, Mexico, Zona Paseo Montejo Centro, Starbucks Coffee shop, baristas and cashier at work smiling. 
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Starbucks has already been increasing the average number of hours that it schedules baristas. More shifts — and more consistent scheduling — have lowered the company’s turnover and helped overall retention.
But Niccol also wants to make sure that cafes are properly staffed, from the busy morning rush to “shoulder hours,” leading up to and away from peak times.

A new approach to marketing

Since his first week on the job in early September, Niccol has said that he wants to revamp the company’s marketing. On Wednesday’s call, he said he wants its marketing to target a broader audience than Starbucks Rewards members and to showcase the quality of Starbucks coffee.
Customers can also expect to see fewer deals as part of the marketing shift. Niccol said discount-driven offers are “ineffective” and can overburden baristas.
Niccol comes from a marketing background and started his career at Procter & Gamble. He then moved to Yum Brands and worked in various marketing positions before ascending to lead Taco Bell. That marketing expertise was useful when he joined Chipotle and will likely also prove valuable at Starbucks. He’s already tapped a former Chipotle alum, Tressie Lieberman, as the new chief global brand officer of Starbucks.

Dairy alternatives finally won’t cost extra

After years of pleading from customers, Starbucks will finally drop the extra charge for its milk substitutes, starting Nov. 7. The change means some customers could save more than 10% on the cost of the drinks, according to the company.

Almond milk coming to certain Starbucks locations in the U.S. by the end of September.
Source: Starbucks

More broadly, Starbucks isn’t planning to change North American prices through the next fiscal year, which ends around early October, in the hopes of improving consumers’ perception of its pricing.
Executives have pointed to pushback against higher prices as one reason why occasional customers have stopped visiting its locations as often. More