All These Coffee Brands Are Now Owned by One Company
The beverage world got some big new yesterday: Keurig Green Mountain, the k-cup coffee king, announced that it was buying Dr Pepper Snapple, a beverage giant that owns dozens of brands beyond the two in its name, including everything from A&W to Margaritaville to Yoo-hoo. But the ramifications don’t end there because Keurig Green Mountain, in and amongst itself, is not an entirely independent company: It’s owned in large part by the international investment firm JAB Holding Company – and it might blow your mind just how much of your morning routine JAB has a hand in.
In 2012, JAB Holding Company started down was seemed like an innocent enough path, acquiring Peet’s Coffee & Tea. As a sort of “also ran” to Starbucks, Peet’s would seem like a good way for an investment firm to get their foot in the door in the coffee market. Since that buyout, however, Peet’s has gone on a bit of a spending spree of its own. In 2014, the coffee chain bought out the tea brand Mighty Leaf Tea, followed in 2015 by the announcement that it was also acquiring two of the most beloved and best-known “third-wave” coffee brands on market, Stumptown and Intelligentsia.
In the meantime, JAB Holding wasn’t done with its own breakfast ambitions, also grabbing majority stakes in Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagel. But turns out the investment firm was just warming up: In 2016, JAB officially acquired Keurig Green Mountain in a nearly $14 billion deal. Then, only a few months later, the firm announced it was also gobbling up Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for another billion-plus bucks.
Think we’re done? Of course not! We haven’t even touched on 2017, when JAB Holding tossed out another $7.5 billion for Panera Bread (who also later announced it was acquiring Au Bon Pain), followed by an announcement in August that JAB was also going to buy up Bruegger’s Bagel.
Confused? Heck, at this point, you have to wonder if JAB Holding Company even knows every company and brand they have a stake in! In fact, the list above only touches on the best known American brands the company owns. JAB also has investments in a ton of foreign coffee, tea and hot chocolate brands through Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a joint venture with Mondelez International, and its JAB Coffee Holding division with owns three additional international retail coffee brands. Plus, JAB Holding Company has a large number of investments that have nothing to do with food and beverage, but luckily that isn’t our realm to have to worry about.
Now, Keurig Green Mountain is also planning to own Dr Pepper Snapple – and the number of brands with JAB ties has reached insane proportions. For instance, think you’ll just grab a Mott’s juice for breakfast? That brand is owned by Dr Pepper Snapple, which will soon be owned by Keurig Green Mountain which is owned by… JAB. It’s enough to leave you wondering if “JAB” stands for “Jonesing After Breakfast”?
