Starbucks to increase spend with diverse suppliers to $1.5 billion by 2030

Starbucks Coffee Company is accelerating its supplier diversity efforts and as part of the expansion of efforts to advance racial and social equity.

The coffee giant is also launching a leadership accelerator program that will start with connecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) partners to senior leadership.

Starbucks said it spent nearly $800 million in fiscal 2021 with diverse suppliers, supporting more than 6,400 jobs and contributing to $1.2 billion in total direct, indirect and induced economic impact nationwide. Starbucks now plans to increase its annual spend with diverse suppliers to $1.5 billion by 2030, and will partner with other organizations to develop and grow supplier diversity excellence globally.  To ensure accountability and track progress Starbucks will share annual updates on progress towards the new commitments. 

In addition, the company will launch a free, open-source tool kit on the fundamentals of how to run a successful business for diverse-owned entrepreneurs in partnership with Arizona State University.  And to improve representation within its paid media portfolio, in the next year Starbucks will also commit to allocating 15% of its advertising budget with minority-owned and targeted media companies, reaching diverse audiences.

Starbucks also released data on its current workforce as part of its commitment to regularly share progress toward its goals to achieve BIPOC representation of at least 30% at all corporate levels and at least 40% of all U.S. retail and manufacturing roles by 2025.  As of October 2021, Starbucks U.S. employee base was 71.3% female and 48.2% BIPOC.  

Breaking down its BIPOC representation further, Starbucks’ employees are 7.7% Black, 28.5% Hispanic or Latinx, 5.9% Asian, 4.8% Two or More Races, 0.6% American Indian or Alaskan Native and 0.5% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

Other updates on Starbucks’ programs and initiatives to racial and social equity on behalf of its and communities are below.

• The company will launch of a leadership accelerator program this summer focused on coaching.  Beginning with its BIPOC employees at the individual contributor level, the program will focus on “empowering partner capacity for self-promotion, advocacy and career navigation while increasing diverse representation in the leadership pipeline at Starbucks.”

• To date, programs funded by grants from The Starbucks Foundation have helped support more than 100,000 BIPOC youth across the country. The Starbucks Foundation shared impact results from its more than $5 million investment in eight nonprofits supporting BIPOC youth.

•Following the company’s commitment to invest $100 million to launch the Starbucks Community Resilience Fund, Starbucks will issue the first round of funding of $21 million across seven community development financial institutions to support small business growth and community development projects in BIPOC communities. More on those CDFIs and their work can be found here.

“Actions that nurture and embrace our exquisite cultural intricacies provide proof that we are committed to real change, not an award-winning performance,” Dennis Brockman, Starbucks chief global inclusion and diversity officer, wrote in a letter to employees. “I do not take this work lightly – we’ve made great strides, but we cannot lose momentum and must move faster to accelerate the change necessary and imperative to ensure Starbucks is the brand of choice in being the most diverse, inclusive, equitable and accessible company.”