caribou080508
On the homepage
Pipeline
Out There
Access Vikings
Lifestyle
Caribou taps former leader of YUM
The veteran executive brings a strong background in finance and operations to the struggling coffee chain.
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
More from Business
With an eye on getting its domestic and international growth strategy back on track, Caribou Coffee Co. Inc. on Monday named veteran food and apparel executive Mike Tattersfield as its new president and CEO.
He replaces interim CEO Roz Mallet, who was appointed in November after serving as president and chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Center-based coffeehouse chain.
Tattersfield, 42, has deep roots in finance and operations. Most recently, he was COO of lululemon athletica, a yoga apparel company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he helped the company more than double its revenue. He also spent an 18-month stint at Limited Brands as vice president of store operations.
The bulk of Tatterfield's career came with YUM Brands Inc., where he spent 13 years leading or playing key roles in operations in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States with such brands as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and A&W All-American Food restaurants.
Born in the states but raised in Mexico, Tattersfield earned an accounting degree from Indiana University and an M.B.A. from Harvard. He said his wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 9, will relocate to the Twin Cities from Columbus, Ohio, in time for the coming school year.
Caribou Coffee "has a great brand identity and a tremendous amount of opportunity in front of it," Tattersfield said in an interview Monday. "The [coffee] category has tremendous potential ... with well-defined and well-differentiated brands. The headwinds are tough ... but I'm excited about the momentum about where the company is heading."
Caribou Coffee has seen a rash of executive departures in recent months. CEO Michael Coles resigned in the fourth quarter of 2007, and was followed two months later by his chief financial officer, George Mileusnic.
The company has performed poorly since its 2004 initial public offering. Once trading at $12 a share, its stock closed Monday at $1.66. The hiring announcement came after markets closed.
Caribou will announce its second-quarter earnings today, and will hold its shareholders meeting on Wednesday.
In May, the company said its first-quarter losses nearly doubled -- to $6.4 million or 33 cents per share -- including costs associated with closing 16 underperforming stores during the quarter.
Caribou is the nation's second-largest specialty coffee company behind Starbucks. Company data from December 2007, its most recent figures, say it has more than 484 coffeehouses, of which 52 are franchises.
Jackie Crosby • 612-673-7335
Recent Business stories
Choppers and Cheese: Wisconsin state honors sought for Harley-Davidson, cheese microbe - August 4, 2008
Choppers and Cheese: Wisconsin state honors sought for Harley-Davidson, cheese microbe - Choppers and cheese may soon become official Wisconsin symbols. More
Blog: Patent Pending
Lights out at U energy conference. Irony police notified.
Just as Lawrence Kazmerski, a top official at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was about to give the keynote address at the University of Minnesota's annual E3 conference at the RiverCentre in St. Paul, the lights went out, bathing the audience in darkness and a deep sense of irony.
Comment on this story | Read all 5 comments | Hide reader comments