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Longtime Bay Area fixture Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. will be sold to a German company for $1 billion, the Emeryville-based company announced in a statement Monday, July 23.
Peet’s will be acquired by Joh. A. Benckiser (JAB) for $73.50 per share in cash. The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the Peet’s board of directors, represents a premium of approximately 29 percent over Peet’s closing stock price on July 20.
Peet’s Coffee & Tea was founded in Berkeley in 1966 by Alfred Peet. The company will be privately owned and will continue to be operated by the company’s current management team and employees, the company announced. Peet’s will remain based in the Bay Area, with its home office in Emeryville and its roast-to-order facility in Alameda.
Peets has locations in Mountain View at 1032 Castro St. and 645 Ellis St.
“We are very excited about this next chapter in Peet’s rich history,” said Patrick O’Dea, president and CEO of Peet’s. “Over many years we’ve demonstrated an unyielding commitment to craft coffees and teas of uncompromised quality. This commitment is what has distinguished the Peet’s brand among all others and will continue to guide us as we go forward.”
Bart Becht, chairman of JAB, said, “At JAB, we are committed to owning and investing in companies with strong, premier-quality brands and great people whose values we share. Peet’s is just such a company, and we look forward to preserving the company’s culture and core values while supporting management’s vision for future growth.”
BDT Capital, a Chicago-based merchant bank providing long-term private capital and advice to closely held companies, is participating as an adviser and minority investor, Peet’s noted.
The transaction is expected to close in approximately three months, subject to closing conditions including receipt of shareholder and regulatory approvals. The purchase requires the vote of holders of a majority of the company’s outstanding shares, which will be sought at a special meeting of shareholders.
Peet was an early tea authority who later became widely recognized as the grandfather of specialty coffee in the United States.
Joh. A. Benckiser is a privately held group focused on long-term investments in premium brands in consumer goods. The group’s portfolio includes a majority stake in Coty Inc., a global beauty company. The company owns Labelux, a luxury goods company with brands such as Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff.
By Sue Dremann
By Sue Dremann
By Sue Dremann
645 Ellis isn’t really a Peet’s. It’s really a Specialty’s Bakery that happens to sell Peet’s merchandise. No employee there is on the Peet’s payroll though.
There is a Peet’s just across the street from Mountain View though, over at San Antonio and El Camino, near Chef Chu.
News reports of the recent sale are widespread, but none that I’ve seen mentions that this is at least the _second_ sale of the Peet’s “brand.” Mr Peet himself sold the business in the 1970s. The expansion from a single shop to a chain began some years later.
I grew up with the original Peet’s, which for a good half of its history was one shop. Peet’s Coffee, Tea, and Spices opened in my neighborhood Berkeley in the 1960s, prefiguring the later food shops (Cheese Board, Pig by the Tail Charcuterie, etc.) and eventually restaurants too (Chez Panisse, 1971, then others) that gave the area around Shattuck and Cedar in Berkeley the eventual nickname “Gourmet Ghetto.” As a kid I bought things at Peet’s like Tellicherry peppercorns and raw cacao beans to make chocolate from “scratch.”