It wasn’t but five months ago that Keurig Dr. Pepper bought a minority stake in La Colombe Coffee Roasters. That appears to have been a short-lived ownership as Chobani has purchased the Philadelphia coffee company outright for $900 million.
Chobani and La Colombe have been bedfellows going back to 2015, when the yogurt brand’s founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya purchased a majority stake in the roasting brand. With the latest sale, though, full ownership now rests with Chobani. As reported by Fast Company, part of the $900 million will go to buy out Ulukaya’s private stake in La Colombe.
Keurig Dr. Pepper’s 33% ownership will also be converted into a minority position with Chobani. As part of their minority purchase earlier this year, KDP received a “long-term sales and distribution agreement for La Colombe ready-to-drink coffee and a long-term licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreement for La Colombe branded K-Cup® coffee pods” that will remain intact under new ownership.
Per Fast Company, despite have over 30 cafes nationwide, the majority of La Colombe’s revenue comes from sales of their canned lattes. Chobani hopes to leverage the relationship with Keurig Dr. Pepper, “North America’s No. 3 beverage maker,” to expand La Colombe’s retail distribution two- to three-fold. Now more publicly at the helm, Ulukaya tells Fast Company that he “envisions a La Colombe 2.0 that will challenge dominant bottled-coffee players, such as Starbucks, Dunkin’, Black Rifle, and Monster.”
The date the sale will be/was finalized has yet to be made public. No information was provided on if rights to the Dragon Brewer were included in the sale.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
