Caribou Coffee’s roasting and packaged coffee business will soon have a new corporate owner as part of an $18 billion beverage company deal announced Monday.
Last year, JDE Peet’s paid Minneapolis-based Caribou $260 million to run Caribou’s roasting operations. That included retail and food service coffee bean sales.
Now, Keurig Dr Pepper intends to purchase JDE Peet’s and eventually spin off the combined coffee brands into a separate $16 billion business. But that shouldn’t change much operations-wise for Caribou.
The roasting partnership, and Caribou’s Brooklyn Center roastery, will continue as JDE Peet’s ownership shifts to Keurig Dr Pepper and subsequently a new coffee company.
Caribou’s coffee shop business, which includes more than 800 cafes in 11 countries, will remain part of Panera Brands. JDE Peet’s and Panera Brands are both under Dutch conglomerate JAB Holdings.
The beverage industry megadeal should close by the mid-2026, and the coffee spinoff by the end of next year. The new company’s brands will include Keurig, Peet’s, Gevalia, Stumptown, Intelligentsia and dozens of other international coffee labels.
The consolidation comes amid record coffee prices as a result of drought in major coffee-growing regions
Keurig Dr Pepper said in a news release the Massachusetts-based spinoff will be the “world’s largest pure-play coffee company.”
