Investor JAB Merges Peet's Coffee And Jacobs Douwe Egberts Ahead Of Listing

By Dave Simpson
Investor JAB Merges Peet's Coffee And Jacobs Douwe Egberts Ahead Of Listing

The German investor that owns Peet's Coffee and Jacobs Douwe Egberts has said that it will merge the two into a single coffee and tea company which it will seek to list on the stock market in an initial public share offering (IPO) in 2020.

JAB Holding said in a statement that the newly-formed company, JDE Peet's, which also owns the Pickwick, Senseo, Tassimo and L'OR brands, will have operations in 140 countries and combined annual revenue of €7 billion.

JAB did not say how large a stake it will sell, where it would list the company, nor what valuation it is seeking. It did, however, say that it intends to remain the controlling shareholder of JDE Peet's after the IPO.

The Financial Times reported earlier that the company plans to float a stake worth approximately €3 billion on Amsterdam's Euronext.

Casey Keller, the CEO of Peet's, will become CEO of JDE Peet's while JDE CEO Frederic Larmusea will remain as an advisor.

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Competition

The bulk of JDE Peet's business is in selling roasted coffee and prepackaged coffee pods and pads. It will compete with Nestle, JM Smucker and Keurig Dr. Pepper - in which JAB also holds a controlling stake - as well as retail giant Starbucks.

Previous Business Moves

JAB bought Peet's in 2012 for $977.6 million, and subsequently purchased Douwe Egberts for $9.8 billion in 2013.

In 2014, it merged Douwe Egberts with the coffee businesses of Mondelez International to create JDE. Mondelez holds a 26 percent sake in JDE.

News by Reuters, edited by Hospitality Ireland. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.