Starbucks CFO announces retirement

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) announced the retirement of its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Scott Maw, effective November 30, 2018. Maw will serve in a senior consultant role through March 2019 to aid in the transition. The coffee chain giant has commenced a search for a successor.

After joining Starbucks in 2011, Maw served as Global Controller and then as Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance. In 2014, he assumed the position of CFO.

Kevin Johnson, President and CEO said, “I am grateful for the contributions Scott has made over the past seven years that led to the unprecedented growth of Starbucks. As we enter our next phase of continued growth, I am confident in the finance team Scott has developed and am appreciative of his willingness to support through the transition into new leadership.”

Starbucks has been struggling with various issues in the recent months that have sent the stock on a tumble. One of these is that Starbucks has a widespread presence, which can sometimes be detrimental too. This leaves the company with no place to open new stores and the close proximity of its existing stores lead to overlapping each other’s sales.

The company is also facing heavy competition, both in the US and internationally, from several rivals who have not only managed to replicate its successful business model but also to improve on it. This has led to Starbucks slowly losing its sheen. The incoming CFO will have quite a task ahead of him.

Starbucks shares were down 1.7% in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock has tumbled over 13% so far this year.