Starbucks, which had temporarily closed the 130 establishments bearing its name in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, announced on Monday that it had made the decision to leave the country definitively, thus following in the wake of other multinationals such as McDonald’s.
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The American chain had opened its first cafe in Russia in 2007 and operated there through a partner, a Kuwaiti group, which owned and managed the licensed establishments.
«We condemn Russia’s unprovoked, unjust and horrific attacks on Ukraine,” then-chief executive Kevin Johnson wrote in a message to employees in early March. He indicated a few days later that his partner had agreed to suspend all operations in the country with immediate effect.
Starbucks will continue to pay some 2,000 employees working on its behalf for six months, the company said in a post on its site.
She did not specify the financial impact of this decision on her accounts. During a presentation in December 2010, company officials had included the country in the list of key markets for the group’s growth alongside China, Brazil and India.
After the start of the war in Ukraine and the imposition of economic sanctions, major Western companies found themselves under great pressure to distance themselves from Moscow for ethical reasons or difficulties in doing business.
After more than 30 years of presence in Russia, nearly 850 restaurants and 62,000 employees, McDonald’s thus announced in mid-May its definitive departure from the country and sold its activities, but not the brand name, to a man of Russian business.
The French manufacturer Renault, leader in the country with the Lada brand which it had recovered, also sold its assets to the Russian State while the oil giant ExxonMobil planned to withdraw from its last major project in the country, Sakhalin. -1.
For Neil Saunders, specialist in the distribution sector at the firm Global Data, Starbucks’ decision shows “that Russia will increasingly become a commercial pariah, companies turning their backs on a country which represents things to which they do not wish to be associated”.
“Other (big brands) will follow,” he predicts in a note. “But some consumer goods or retail groups are likely to stay because unlike Starbucks and McDonald’s, they have quite significant exposure and interests in Russia,” he adds, mentioning luxury groups in particular.