Peet’s Coffee appears to be on the move again. The cafe and roaster started in Berkeley, California back in the ‘60s was part of another first wave in coffee: the private equity buy-up. In 2012, Peet’s sold to JAB Holding Company for just under $1 billion. This later led to big name American specialty coffee roasters Stumptown and Intelligentsia being bought in 2015 by JAB (technically via Peet’s). Then in 2019, Peet’s merged with Dutch brand (owned by JAB) Jacobs Douwe Egberts to form JDE Peet’s, headquartered in Amsterdam.
Now, Keurig Dr. Pepper is nearing a deal to buy JDE Peet’s for $18 billion.
The sale would be a homecoming of sorts, making Peet’s once again an American-based company. As reported by CNBC, the Frisco, Texas-based Keurig Dr. Pepper is looking to bolster their larger drinks portfolio, which also saw them spend nearly $1 billion last year for a majority stake in energy drinks brand Ghost. Per CNBC, once JDE Peet’s merges with Keurig Dr. Pepper, the company will split into two units: one for coffee and one for other beverages.
Current market value for JDE Peet’s is $15 billion.
This is probably a good time to mention that JAB Holdings owns 70% of Keurig Dr. Pepper.
Anyway, there are still 50% tariffs on all goods coming into America from Brazil that are all but halting the coffee trade between the two, and some European postal companies no longer accept shipments headed for the States due to the removal of the de minimis threshold, so don’t expect to see a lot of retail coffee coming over from there. Meanwhile, billionaires are shifting around beloved coffee brands like loose change from one pocket to the other. Coffee is doing great.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
