Thank you for the opportunity to respond as we take all reported safety concerns and incidents seriously.

Dufflaghur Tea Estate

On behalf of Starbucks, we would first like to send our deepest condolences to the family and community of Shri. Sukman Munda.

Once we were made aware of the unfortunate incident at Dufflaghur Tea Estate, we immediately reached out to directly to understand what occurred and requested that our supplier share their due diligence approach. We also shared our expectation of our supplier to develop a plan to improve safety measures. To ensure the improved safety measures are implemented, we have also put in place a progress report with our supplier.

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Namdang Tea Estate

Starbucks does source from Namdang Tea Estate owned by McLeod Russel India Limited, but the incident referenced in the article incorrectly identified Namdang whereas the incident occurred at Samdang, owned by MK Shah. Starbucks did not source from Samdang Tea Estate in 2022 or 2023.

Full response included below.