STARBUCKS has said it will pay more tax in the UK as it moves its European headquarters here from the Netherlands following a row over avoidance.
The coffee shop chain was hit by a customer boycott two years ago in protest over its tax payments.
It will relocate its regional head office from Amsterdam to London by the end of the year.
A "modest" number of senior executives will move to London so the firm will be "better able to oversee the UK market", Starbucks said in a statement.
The regional offices of its Middle East and Africa businesses will also be moved to the UK capital.
The company said: "Today, our largest and fastestgrowing European market is the UK. As the coffee industry has grown, the UK and London specifically has become one of the most competitive coffee markets in the world.
"In the UK alone, we plan to open over 100 retail stores across the country this year, creating 1000 new, permanent jobs. We expect continued growth in other European markets as well. This move will mean we pay more tax in the UK."
Kris Engskov, Starbucks' president of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, said: "Closer proximity to our biggest market will be critical to our success."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article