Keurig Dr. Pepper to buy the owner of Peet’s Coffee

Peet’s Coffee will get a new owner, and then another new owner. | Photo: Shutterstock.

Peet’s Coffee is taking part in yet another merger and IPO. 

JDE Peet’s, the Dutch coffee company that owns the coffee chain Peet’s, is being sold to the beverage giant Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP) in a deal valued at $18 billion. The company will then split into two different businesses, one overseeing beverages and the other overseeing coffee.

Peet’s, along with coffee brands such as Keurig and Jacobs, Douwe, Egberts, will be part of what is being called Global Coffee Co., which the companies say will be the world’s largest “pure-play” coffee company with some $16 billion in total sales. 

News of the deal wasn’t exactly given a warm welcome on Wall Street, where stock in KDP fell more than 7% on the news. The bond rating agency S&P Global placed the company on credit watch negative, citing the amount of debt Keurig Dr. Pepper will need after the acquisition. 

Sudhanshu Priyadarshi, currently the CFO of KDP, will become CEO of Global Coffee Co. Rafa Oliveira, currently CEO of JDE Peet’s, will remain in that position until the merger is complete. Global Coffee will be based in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The deal is only the latest in a string of mergers, acquisitions and changes involving companies that have at one time or another were owned or controlled by the investment firm JAB Holding. The European-based firm owns a controlling stake in JDE Peet’s and was a driving force in the 2018 merger between Keurig, which makes single-serve coffee and coffee machines, and Dr. Pepper.

Peet’s has been involved in a number of transactions over the years involving other companies owned by JAB.

The investment firm took the coffee chain private in 2012, the first in a rash of acquisitions the investment firm made in coffee and breakfast chains. 

Peet’s in 2019 was sold to Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a European coffee company that was also owned by JAB. The combined company then went public the next year in Amsterdam. Now JDE Peet’s is being sold to KDP. 

Peet’s is less heavily involved in running coffee shops these days. System sales last year were roughly flat at $303 million. But that is down 10.5% over the past 10 years, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic. The company operates 255 mostly company-run locations. 

But Peet’s has grown its coffee roasting business and last year took over that responsibility from Caribou Coffee, which itself is owned by JAB Holdings.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Restaurant Business Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze is a longtime industry journalist who writes about restaurant finance, mergers and acquisitions and the economy, with a particular focus on quick-service restaurants.

View All Articles by This Author



_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}