The march towards a single, unified coffee entity continues with yet another merger. S&D Coffee & Tea, โthe largest coffee and tea manufacturer and supplier to restaurants and convenience stores in America,โ has been acquired by Westrock Coffee for $405 million.
Announced via press release on Friday, January 31st, the acquisition is said to be finalized in the coming weeks, by March 1st per the Independent Tribune. Youโd be forgiven if S&D Coffee and Westrock arenโt exactly front-of-mind names in the coffee world a la Starbucks or Peet’s. Both businesses primarily trade in the โretail, restaurant, convenience store, and hospitality industries,โ meaning no real retail spaces of their own. But they both are big players in their respective regions: S&D in the East and Westrock just about everywhere else thanks to deals with Walmart, Samโs Club, and CVS. The newly formed mega-company will employee around 1,700 individuals and has the capability of producing over 200 million pounds of roasted coffee a year.
โThis is tremendous news for our company and a validation of the work weโve been doing for our customers and the growers who support our business,โ [Westrock CEO Scott] Ford said in a statement. โItโs going to be great news for Little Rock down the road as we work with our new team members to expand our growth organically and through acquisitions.โ
Headquartered in Little Rock, both S&D and Westrock will continue to operate under their current names โfor the foreseeable future.โ S&Dโs Concord, North Carolina-based plant โwill continue as a major center of operations with plans to continue expansion of these facilities.โ For more information, read the press release on Westrock’s official website.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.
