Starbucks’ (SBUX) unveiled plans on Wednesday to create 240,000 new jobs, with 68,000 of those being in the U.S.
The coffee giant also plans to open 12,000 new stores, with 3,500 in the U.S. One-hundred of those new stores will be Military Family Stores.
The company has reached its goal of hiring 10,000 military veterans by 2018. The coffee chain announced plans to double-down on its efforts to hire military veterans with a new goal of hiring 25,000 veterans and military spouses by 2025.
The company also surpassed its goal of hiring 10,000 Opportunity Youth. Starbucks has now hired 40,000. The company also aims to hire 100,000 Opportunity Youth by 2020 in the U.S.
The announcement came at the company’s annual shareholder meeting where Starbucks’ outgoing CEO Howard Schultz is also expected to touch upon the company’s commitment to hiring refugees.
On Jan. 29, Schultz sent out a company-wide letter following Trump’s decision to sign an executive order temporarily halted citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US. (That order has been stymied in court. Earlier this month, Trump signed a new travel ban executive order that excludes Iraq.)
In the letter, Schultz detailed plans to hire 10,000 refugees in the countries where the coffee chain operates by 2022. This was met with some backlash on social media, with some users calling for a boycott of Starbucks.
“We have a long history of hiring young people looking for opportunities and a pathway to a new life around the world. This is why we are doubling down on this commitment by working with our equity market employees as well as joint venture and licensed market partners in a concerted effort to welcome and seek opportunities for those fleeing war, violence, persecution and discrimination,” Schultz wrote in the letter.
The letter continued: “There are more than 65 million citizens of the world recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and we are developing plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business. And we will start this effort here in the U.S. by making the initial focus of our hiring efforts on those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support.”
Starbucks currently employees 330,000 people globally. The company operates 26,000 stores in 75 countries.
Schultz will step down as CEO on April 3, handing the keys over to Kevin R. Johnson, the company’s current COO and president.
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
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