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Business Daily

Can Starbucks regain its buzz?

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4816 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s probably the world’s best-known coffee chain but just over a year ago, business wasn’t doing well. Sales had slipped, customers were drifting away and the buzz had gone.

Newly-arrived CEO Brian Niccol was handed a tough task: stop the fall and make the coffee shops somewhere people wanted to return to.

In an interview with our North America business correspondent Michelle Fleury, he explains why customers are returning and seem to be giving the company another shot.

If you'd like to get in touch with the team, our email address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Producers: John Mervin and Justin Bones

Business Daily is the home of in-depth audio journalism devoted to the world of money and work. From small startup stories to big corporate takeovers, global economic shifts to trends in technology, we look at the key figures, ideas and events shaping business.

Each episode is a 17-minute deep dive into a single topic, featuring expert analysis and the people at the heart of the story.

Recent episodes explore the weight-loss drug revolution, the growth in AI, the cost of living, why bond markets are so powerful, China's property bubble, and Gen Z's experience of the current job market.

We also feature in-depth interviews with company founders and some of the world's most prominent CEOs. These include the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and billionaire founder Judy Faulkner of Epic Systems, one of the world's largest medical record software providers.

(Picture: Brian Niccol, CEO of Starbucks, sitting in one of the company's coffee shops in downtown New York.)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:06.8

Starbucks is probably the world's best-known coffee chain,

0:10.7

but just over a year ago, things weren't looking great.

0:14.2

Sales had slipped, customers were drifting away,

0:17.0

and the magic just wasn't there.

0:19.4

That's when Brian Nicol was handed a tough task.

0:22.6

Stop the fall and make the coffee shop somewhere people actually wanted to return to.

0:26.8

We want you to stay. We want you to make this your community coffee house.

0:30.9

People want these places to gather. The humanity of it is important.

0:35.7

Hi, I'm Michelle Flurry, the BBC's North America business correspondent.

0:40.1

And today on Business Daily, I'm speaking to the Starbucks CEO

0:43.4

about how he's changing stores, updating menus,

0:47.1

and most importantly, persuading customers to give the coffee brand another shot.

0:53.0

Hi, welcome in.

0:54.8

Hi, nice.

0:55.7

Have a grande caramel protein latte.

0:58.5

Starbucks began in Seattle, Washington State, a city famous for grunge music, rain, and Boeing airplanes.

1:05.9

When it launched in 1971, the company sold coffee beans, spices and tea. But in the 1980s, the company's CEO at the time, Howard Schultz, saw a much bigger opportunity and set Starbucks on a path to become a global brand.

1:21.2

If you hold off on your morning coffee because it has to be Starbucks, consider the Starbucks beat for the perfect cup at home.

1:28.7

Today, the company operates around 32,000 stores in 80 countries,

1:33.4

but the journey hasn't been smooth in recent years.

1:36.6

Brian Nicol took over a CEO in 2024, rolling out a radical back-to-Stabuck

...

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