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Starbucks Korea announced it has hired Shinsegae I&C’s chief, Song Jun Hyun, to be its new chief executive officer. He will be immediately replacing the outgoing CEO Song Ho Seop who will be leaving amid criticisms over his management of the company.
Song Ho Seop’s departure will become a disappointing experience for him as he was actually sacked by Starbucks Korea. He is making his exit three years early because of the gaffes throughout the past year under his leadership. The outgoing chief was originally signed to lead the coffee chain until 2025.
Based on the report, Song Ho Seop has been heavily criticized for many mistakes including the improper and lousy way of handling the issues that have recently marred the company. Shinsegae Group which owns 67.5% of Starbucks Korea announced the ousting of its CEO on Thursday, Oct. 27. The company also confirmed the reasons for its move to replace Song Ho Seop.
One of the main blunders that led to the dismissal of the executive is the incident involving Starbucks Korea’s giveaway gift bags that were found to contain the class 1 carcinogen - formaldehyde. The CEO before Song Ho Seop openly criticized him for not taking immediate action to solve the problem. Rather, the issue escalated leading to some customers staging a boycott of the coffee chain’s products.
While the company issued an apology and vowed to avoid similar errors, people have pointed out that it was not the first time the same mistake happened. In fact, there was also an incident regarding paper straws that smell like gasoline. As the series of gaffes keep piling up, Song Ho Seop was even accused of violating the Framework Act on Consumers at one point thus, the company is hoping to regain the trust of customers with the appointment of a new CEO.
"Through this personnel reshuffle, we went carefully through candidates and appointed the best person to lead the company's future growth and further strengthen our core competitiveness," an official of Shinsegae Group said in a statement.
Photo by: JerryUnderscore/Pixabay
