Starbucks Corp. will open its first standalone corporate office in India, focused on technology roles, even as the global coffee chain executed another 300 corporate job cuts this week as part of a wider $2 billion cost-reduction drive.
The India tech hub is scheduled to begin operations in Starbucks’ fiscal year 2027, which starts in October. According to an internal memo sent by Chief Technology Officer Anand Varadarajan and seen by Bloomberg News, the company will begin recruitment after finalising a location later this year. The office will mark Starbucks’ first independent corporate presence in India, separate from Tata Starbucks, the cafe joint venture run with Tata Consumer Products.
Varadarajan told employees the move is part of a strategy to bring outsourced technology roles back in-house, reversing an earlier outsourcing arrangement with third-party contractors. He said the company was focused on “reducing reliance on external service providers” and that “establishing a multi-site structure is a meaningful step toward that goal.”
A Starbucks spokesperson, in a statement to Bloomberg, said the goal of insourcing was to “build closer connection to the work and the teams delivering it.”
The India announcement was timed to coincide with a fresh restructuring round at home. Starbucks has cut more than 2,000 corporate jobs globally since February 2025, including roughly 300 positions eliminated this week. Last month, the company also disclosed plans to relocate 270 technology roles, accounting for about 20% of its tech workforce, to a new office in Nashville, Tennessee.
The restructuring is being executed under Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol, who has been driving the company’s $2 billion cost-saving programme.
For India, the move signals a deepening of US multinational corporate presence beyond GCC structures. The number of India-based roles Starbucks plans to hire in the first phase has not been disclosed by the company. Tata Starbucks operates over 400 cafes across major Indian cities and remains the company’s retail vehicle in the country.
