We were there Thursday morning when Starbucks’ CEO, Brian Niccol, walked onstage at The Glasshouse in New York City, declared, “Our plan is working,” and unveiled the next phase of his effort to engineer a comeback for the coffee giant.
Niccol, a turnaround champion known for his successful comeback campaign at Chipotle, received a round of applause from the investor audience while Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes” played in the background.
The “Back to Starbucks” initiative, launched after Niccol took the helm in September 2024, has already brought changes to customer service, menu offerings, and café design. At investor day, two Business Insider reporters watched closely as executives made clear that the last 16 months were only the opening act and previewed what comes next.
The event — Starbucks’ first since 2023 — followed a strong first-quarter earnings report that showed same-store sales in the US rising for the first time in eight quarters.
Here’s what we saw.
Starbucks showed the model for future locations
Starbucks’ new “Ristretto” concept, as the company called it — named after the short-pulled espresso shot — aims to reduce average build costs by about 20% while optimizing overall footprint, Chief Financial Officer Cathy Smith said.
The walk-thru mockup featured cushy furniture, digital menus, merch displays, and a callback to Starbucks’ 1971 founding above the door.
Smith forecast 600 to 650 new stores opening globally in the current fiscal year, rising to over 2,000 in fiscal year 2028. Roughly 400 of the new US coffeehouses coming by 2028 are expected to be company-owned.
Refreshed designs looked inviting
Walking through the coffeehouse setup, with Simple Plan’s “I’m Just a Kid” playing on the speakers, it was hard not to think back to our teenage years when Starbucks was the hangout spot, which perhaps was the point.
Execs stressed Starbucks’ desire to become a “third place.”
“We have a unique opportunity to connect people over coffee during a time when loneliness is pervasive,” Global Chief Brand Officer Tressie Lieberman said.
The furniture screamed comfort and style
The furniture, including the “Starbucks lounge icon,” as the display next to the chair pictured above read, was designed to get people to sit and hang out for a while.
Niccol said the company plans to add 25,000 additional seats to its US company-operated stores by the end of its fiscal year and replace thousands more with “more comfortable options.”
“Customers are already responding with longer dwell times and, frankly, improved customer satisfaction and connections,” he added.
Digital menu boards show order status and menu highlights
Starbucks plans to introduce digital menu boards in all of its US company-operated stores over the next 18 months, separating its morning and afternoon menus to better target customer preferences.
“The morning is very much a ritual,” Niccol said during the company’s earnings call on Wednesday. “The afternoon is really a reset — and depending on where you are in that reset, you sometimes want a blended drink, you sometimes want an energy drink, you sometimes want a sparkling drink, and you sometimes want protein.”
Starbucks plans to expand its wellness offerings to meet that demand.
Starbucks’ new menu items include ube and mango cold foam
Starbucks offered samples of global flavors like an ube macchiatto, a reformulated Chai latte with mango cold foam, and a strawberry açaí refresher, available three ways: decaffeinated, caffeinated, or with an energy boost.
We also sampled some bakery items, including a croissant-like uzu citrus blossom with a tasty uzu filling.
A tech boon for baristas
Starbucks is rolling out new front and back-end technologies to make baristas’ jobs easier — and help you get your order faster.
The company’s mobile app has gotten a facelift, and a new loyalty program is rolling out in March. Its new point-of-sale system, also coming this year, aims to reduce staff training time and the time it takes to place an order.
The Mastrena III espresso machine, rolling out in 2027, halves the time it takes to brew espresso while maintaining the quality, Starbucks says.
Starbucks also showed off Green Dot Assist, an AI-powered assistant that gives baristas recipes and other information about an order on a tablet to speed up production.
The viral Bearista cup had a place of honor
Lieberman said Starbucks sees merch as a way to make each café visit feel like an experience worth repeating.
“We drive momentum by giving our customers things to talk about,” Lieberman said.
While she didn’t specify plans for new collectibles, like the viral Bearista cup that sparked a healthy resale market late last year, the cup was prominently displayed, hinting at future drops.
Investors pressed for more specifics
The Q&A session lasted nearly an hour, during which analysts pressed the executives for more specifics on their plan.
Despite the optimism onstage, investors pressed executives on the company’s long-term plan. Shares slid about 1% during the presentations, after a brief pop earlier in the week before earnings.
The execs responded to several questions about Starbucks’ operating margins and its recent deal with Boyu Capital to sell off 60% of its China business. Investors also wanted more details on how Starbucks will navigate ongoing supply chain snarls and encourage employees to have an “ownership mentality” to grow with the brand.
We ended the day with a clearer picture of Starbucks’ growth plans
About five hours after it began, Rodriguez left investor day buzzing with caffeine and headed back to Business Insider’s New York headquarters.
On the West Coast, Business Insider’s Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert — equally caffeinated after a 3 a.m. wake-up — was already on the phone with analysts. Their verdict: Starbucks has gone on offense, laying out growth plans that are credible, if not exactly blockbuster.
Together, the two reporters walked away with a sharper view of where Starbucks’ strategy is headed next.
The company hopes it can reignite momentum by making its cafés more inviting and pushing harder on menu innovation. There’s still work to do — but Starbucks believes its comeback is no longer theoretical.
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