You soon may be able to own stock in in some of the biggest names in American specialty coffee. As reported by NASDAQ, the Luxembourg-based investment firm JAB Holding Co. intends to take their line of coffee businesses public in the not-too-distant future.
The firm’s holding currently include pioneerng third wave coffee brands Stumptown Coffee and Intelligentsia, longtime baby boomer mainstay Peet’s, and £4 hummus titans Pret A Manger (only to name a few). JAB’s coffee-based portfolio, collectively known as Acorn Holdings hit a total of $19 billion in sales last year, per Reuters. Included in this portfolio is Tully’s Coffee, Van Houtte, and the entire Keurig Dr. Pepper roster.
Bringing Acorn to market is step one in a two-part plan to take many of JAB’s assets public, as per NASDAQ; the next phase will be to offer the also-coffee-heavy restaurant portion of their holdings, which includes Pret A Manger, Panera Bread, Einstein Bros, Caribou, and Espresso House.
According to a statement from the company, “JAB has a very successful global Coffee and Beverages platform in Acorn, and we are envisioning taking it public in the next two-three years.” The statement continues, “A public listing would be in line with JAB’s long-term philosophy to bring leading global consumer businesses to the public markets. However, we have not made any decision to trigger an IPO process now.”
So get your ducats in order, y’all. The next phase of the third wave mergers and acquisitions game shall soon come to pass: the first* major third wave IPO.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Top image via the Michigan Chronicle
Disclosure: Intelligentsia Coffee and Stumptown Coffee are advertisers on the Sprudge Media Network.
*Ed. note—To our knowledge this will be the first major third wave IPO. If you are, however, aware of a legit previous example of a third wave coffee IPO please contact us and we will amend this post. “Ahoy there dean” try-hard nonsense does not count.
