JDE Peet's: How the World's Largest Pure-Play Coffee Empire Was Built

I. Introduction: The 4,400 Cups Per Second Empire

Picture this: in the time it takes you to read this sentence, approximately 25,000 cups of coffee will have been poured from a JDE Peet's brand somewhere on earth. JDE Peet's is the world's leading pure-play coffee and tea company, serving approximately 4,400 cups of coffee or tea per second. JDE Peet's unleashes the possibilities of coffee and tea in more than 100 markets with a portfolio of over 50 brands including L'OR, Peet's, Jacobs, Senseo, Tassimo, Douwe Egberts, OldTown, Super, Pickwick and Moccona.

The company most people have never heard of is, paradoxically, the one that puts more coffee into more cups than almost any other company on the planet. JDE Peet's is the world's leading pure-play coffee company, serving approximately 4,400 cups of coffee per second in more than 100 markets. In 2024, JDE Peet's generated total sales of EUR 8.8 billion and employed a global workforce of more than 21,000 employees.

The central question that makes JDE Peet's one of the most fascinating business stories of the 21st century: How did a 270-year-old Dutch grocery shop, a German coffee brand founded in 1895, and the Berkeley store that trained Starbucks' founders all end up under one roof—owned by one of Germany's most secretive billionaire families?

The answer lies at the intersection of centuries-old heritage, aggressive private equity consolidation, and the insatiable global demand for caffeine. The product of a merger between Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Peet's Coffee in 2019, JDE Peet's is the world's largest pure-play coffee and tea group by revenue, with operations in more than 100 developed and emerging countries.

But in August 2025, this story took its most dramatic turn yet. Keurig Dr Pepper agreed to acquire Dutch coffee and tea company JDE Peet's in a roughly $18 billion deal that could give a boost to the U.S. giant's struggling coffee business. Once the acquisition completes, the combined company is set to separate into two independent U.S.-listed coffee and beverages firms.

This is a story of empire builders and craftsmen, of corporate consolidation and artisanal passion, of a family fortune built in the shadows of history emerging to reshape how the world drinks its morning cup.

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II. Origins: The Dutch Coffee Pioneer (1753–1960s)

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The Shop on Midstraat

In 1753, in the small Frisian village of Joure—a place accessible primarily by waterway, nestled in the flat Dutch countryside—a former sailor named Egbert Douwes opened a grocery store. In 1753 Egbert Douwes and his wife Akke Thijsses opened up a grocery store called De Witte Os (or the White Ox) on Midstraat in Joure. This marked the beginning of Douwe Egberts as it exists today.

Egbert had spent his early career on the sea. Egbert Douwes began his career in seafaring. He sailed aboard a kofschip from the Kolk in Joure on the great waters, especially towards Scandinavia. Here he earned good money. In 1750 he met Akke Thijssen, who later became his wife. Together they started a store in coffee, tea, tobacco and other "colonial goods" on the Midstraat in Joure in 1753.

The 18th century was the era of Dutch dominance in global trade. The Dutch East India Company had made Amsterdam the world's warehouse, and colonial goods—coffee from Java, tea from China, spices from the Moluccas—flowed through Dutch ports in unprecedented quantities. Egbert Douwes had positioned himself at a nexus of supply and demand that would prove remarkably durable.

The beginning of the Douwe Egberts company. In 1755, Egbert Douwes had a son, Douwe Egberts. The boy first became a cabinetmaker, the old-fashioned name for a furniture and cabinet maker. By 1780, the sale of colonial goods was doing so well that Douwe Egberts was included in his father's business. Douwe Egberts was not only a grocer, but also a "wholesaler." He sold colonial goods to grocers in South Friesland, the head of Overijssel and in Drenthe. To give you an idea; between May 23, 1783 and August 27, 1784, a total of over 17,500 pounds of coffee was sold, almost 1,500 pounds of tea and over 250 pounds of tobacco and snuff.

It was Douwe, not his father, who transformed a village shop into a regional powerhouse. Originally, Egbert Douwes only sold to the local villagers. However, when his son, Douwe Egberts, joined the business around 1780, he built up a reputation regionally by supplying shop owners elsewhere, thereby spreading the Douwe Egberts brand around the country.

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From Joure to Global Brand

The company evolved across generations, each adding new dimensions. By the early 20th century, Douwe Egberts had outgrown its Frisian origins. In 1919 Douwe Egberts opened the DE headquarters, and also the very first distillery on Catharijnekade in the city of Utrecht.

Innovation came not just through products, but through marketing genius. In 1924 Douwe Egberts came up with a gift system. It was a successful initiative to make customers fall in love with the D.E. products. Today, eighty years later, it is the oldest active saving system in the Netherlands. Almost 70% of all Dutch households have been saving the Douwe Egberts coffee seals. More than 2.5 million gifts are claimed every single year.

The red DE seal—introduced in 1925—became one of the most recognized symbols in Dutch consumer culture. By mid-century, Douwe Egberts had achieved market dominance that bordered on cultural monopoly. In 1960 Douwe Egberts took responsibility for more than half the national coffee and tobacco export. Douwe Egbert Nederland (1968) became the operating company dedicated to the marketing and selling of tea and coffee in the Netherlands.

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Johann Jacobs: The German Parallel

While Douwe Egberts was building its empire in the Netherlands, a parallel story was unfolding in Germany. The brand started in Bremen, Germany with Mr Johann Jacobs, who had a dream to let everyone experience the amazing power of coffee and the possibilities it brings.

Johann Jacobs opened his first grocery business in Bremen in 1895, focused on high-quality coffee. Like Douwe Egberts, Jacobs grew to become a household name—the coffee brand Germans reached for generation after generation. These two coffee dynasties would operate independently for over a century before their fates converged in one of the most consequential coffee mergers in history.

What matters for investors: Douwe Egberts' 270-year survival demonstrates something profound about the coffee business: once a brand establishes trust and habit, it becomes remarkably sticky. The company weathered wars, depressions, and fundamental shifts in Dutch society. This brand durability would prove essential when private equity came calling.

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III. The American Coffee Revolution: Alfred Peet's Vision (1966–2012)

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The Dutchman Who Changed American Coffee

On April 1, 1966—appropriately, April Fool's Day for a venture many thought quixotic—a 46-year-old Dutch immigrant opened a small coffee shop at the corner of Vine and Walnut streets in Berkeley, California. On April 1, 1966, Alfred Peet first opened the doors of his coffee store in Berkeley, CA, and ignited a coffee revolution.

Alfred Peet was no ordinary immigrant. Alfred Peet was born in the Netherlands on March 10, 1920. He cut his teeth in the coffee industry, caring for the roasting and grinding machinery at the small coffee company his father owned, B. Koorn & Company. Working in his father's company blossomed into a full passion for the coffee and tea trade. Mr. Peet opted to forego college, moving to London in the 1930s to pursue his passion by apprenticing at Twinings. He went on to work as a tea taster in Indonesia. It was there he fell in love with the syrupy richness of dark-roasted Indonesian coffee and aspired to introduce such exceptional qualities to the coffee-drinking public. In 1955, Mr. Peet moved to San Francisco to work for a coffee importer.

What Peet found in 1950s America appalled him. The country that had won World War II and was conquering space couldn't brew a decent cup of coffee. After various jobs, in 1966, Peet opened up his own place: Peet's Coffee Tea & Spices, on the corner of Vine Street and Walnut Street in Berkeley, California. Founding the business was partly prompted by his dissatisfaction reflected in the oft-cited quote: "I came to the richest country in the world, so why are they drinking the lousiest coffee?" Both, which are connected. I think he meant the quality of the coffee and that the roast was very light—which had something to do with the fact that the lighter the roast, the less loss in weight for the coffee beans and the more profit for the companies that sell coffee. He wanted good-quality coffee beans, for example, from Indonesia, and they were not available.

Dismayed with the poor quality of coffee in the United States, Peet opened a coffee store in Berkeley, California, on 1 April 1966. He compared the low quality coffee in the United States to World War II "rationed" coffee.

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Training the Competition

Peet's store quickly became a destination. The neighborhood around Vine and Walnut—soon to include Alice Waters' legendary Chez Panisse—earned the nickname "Gourmet Ghetto." The origin of Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto was Peet's first Peet's Coffee location, opened in 1966, at the corner of Walnut and Vine; the area grew around Peet's and adjacent specialty food, health food, and other avant-garde restaurants that sprung up, including Chez Panisse.

But the shop's most consequential visitors arrived in 1970. Three young entrepreneurs approach Mr. Peet to learn the critical roasting and blending aspects of the coffee business. He provides them with training as well as the roasted coffee beans for their new venture, Starbucks. Yes, that Starbucks.

Peet taught his style of roasting beans to Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker, who, with his blessing, took the technique to Seattle and founded Starbucks in 1971. Peet later distanced himself, however, from the Starbucks trio as they experimented with ultra-dark roasts. "Baldwin never learned anything from me," Peet was later quoted as saying.

What they say is that he saw them as not just his pupils, but as the sons he never had. Peet also found it a bit fascinating—nowadays everybody wants to open their own coffee company, it seems, but back then that was completely not the case. So there were three youngsters coming all the way to Berkeley to learn a profession from him to start a company in Seattle. In a matter of weeks, during the holiday season of 1970, they learned how he ran his business. Baldwin also learned how to roast coffee. Later, Peet went to Seattle to have a look at how things were going and he also taught them there, so there was this teaching dynamic between them for quite a while. They say they had asked his permission to model their first stores exactly after his in Berkeley. Since then, there was an interesting relationship between both companies, and lots of respect.

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The Road Not Taken

Here, the story takes a twist that business school case studies rarely capture. In 1984, Jerry Baldwin, a Starbucks founder, bought Peet's four locations from Sal Bonavita. In 1987, Baldwin and his Starbucks co-investors sold Starbucks to focus on Peet's. Baldwin and his Starbucks co-investors sold Starbucks to focus on Peet's. Howard Schultz, Starbucks' new owner, entered into a four-year non-compete agreement in the Bay Area.

Siegl had already left Starbucks in 1980, and Baldwin and Bowker had bought his shares in the company. They decided to sell Starbucks for $3.8 million in 1987 to a group of investors led by Howard Schultz, who wanted to grow the cafe culture of the company.

The founders chose the teacher over the student. They kept Peet's—the original, the authentic, the craft roaster—and let Starbucks go to Howard Schultz, the man who would build it into the most recognized coffee brand on earth. One of the great counterfactuals of American business history: What if Baldwin had kept Starbucks instead?

Alfred Peet passed away in 2007 in Ashland, Oregon, where he had retired. But his influence on the industry and on how Americans drink coffee today cannot be overstated.

Peet's went public in 2001, a modest affair by tech-boom standards. In 2001, the company was incorporated as Peet's Coffee and Tea Company and had its initial public offering. The company was listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol PEET, and 3.3 million shares were sold at $8 a share. Shares climbed to $9.38 and the company raised $26.4 million.

The Peet's that Alfred built remained deliberately small, deliberately focused, deliberately excellent. It would take new ownership to transform that artisanal legacy into a platform for empire-building.

What matters for investors: The Peet's-Starbucks connection demonstrates how heritage brands carry asymmetric value in coffee. Peet's trained Starbucks' founders, yet Starbucks became a hundred-billion-dollar company while Peet's remained a niche player. When JAB acquired Peet's in 2012, they weren't just buying stores—they were buying legitimacy in American specialty coffee.

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IV. Corporate Consolidation Era: Sara Lee & the Seeds of Today (1978–2012)

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The Conglomerate Years

In 1978, the Douwe Egberts family made a decision that would reshape their company's destiny. In 1978 Douwe Egberts was taken over by Consolidated Foods Corporation, later the Sara Lee Corporation.

In 1978, Douwe Egberts was acquired by Sara Lee, and as part of this global food and beverage organisation, the company moved into new markets. Innovation drove the business forward, and in 1998 the organisation expanded into Brazil. The Out of Home business also expanded rapidly during the 1990s, with the Cafitesse liquid coffee system becoming widely popular in offices, health care organisations, hotels and other public buildings.

Under Sara Lee's umbrella, Douwe Egberts became a global operation. In 1989, Douwe Egberts purchased Van Nelle, its main Dutch competitor in coffee, tea and tobacco. It sold its tobacco interests, including Van Nelle and Drum rolling tobacco, to Imperial Tobacco in 1998.

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The Senseo Revolution

The most consequential innovation of the Sara Lee era came in 2001, when Douwe Egberts partnered with electronics giant Philips to create something genuinely new. In 2001, the company collaborated with Philips to produce the Senseo coffee maker.

The introduction of Douwe Egberts SENSEO® in 2001 marked a new era for those in love with coffee. Now it was possible to prepare a single cup of coffee and even select your favourite coffee pad.

Senseo represented a bet that would prove prescient: consumers wanted convenience without sacrificing quality. The single-serve segment would eventually become the most contested battleground in coffee, with Nespresso, Keurig, and Tassimo all vying for kitchen-counter supremacy. Douwe Egberts had gotten there first in Europe.

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The Spin-Off

By 2012, Sara Lee's coffee division had become awkwardly positioned. With profits from the coffee division under threat from rivals such as Nestlé and Kraft, and being unable to find a buyer, in 2012 Sara Lee split off the coffee division into D.E Master Blenders 1753, offering share-holders one share in the new company for each main share they held. The main Sara Lee company changed its name to Hillshire Brands. In 2012 Douwe Egberts became an independent Dutch company again, trading under the name D.E Master Blenders 1753 NV.

In 2011, it was decided to separate the international coffee and tea business from the Sara Lee organisation, and in June 2012, the new company, with a name that links our past to our future, was listed on NYSE Euronext - D.E MASTER BLENDERS 1753.

The spin-off created a pure-play coffee company with centuries of heritage, a strong European footprint, and—critically—a share price that attracted hungry buyers.

What matters for investors: The Sara Lee period demonstrates both the opportunities and limitations of conglomerate ownership in coffee. Sara Lee provided capital for expansion but never fully prioritized coffee. The spin-off created a standalone entity ripe for acquisition by more focused investors.

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V. INFLECTION POINT #1: Enter JAB Holding—The Coffee Consolidation Begins (2012–2015)

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The Mysterious Reimann Family

To understand how JDE Peet's came to exist, you must first understand JAB Holding—and to understand JAB, you must understand the Reimann family.

JAB Holding Company S.à r.l. (JAB or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast food, among others.

The family's wealth traces back to Ludwig Reimann, a chemist who joined Johann Adam Benckiser's chemical company in 1828. Owned by Germany's Reimann family, 90% of JAB belongs to four of the nine adopted children of the late Albert Reimann Jr. (1898–1984). They trace their wealth to chemist Ludwig Reimann, who, in 1828, joined with Johann Adam Benckiser (founder of the namesake chemical company). Reimann married one of Benckiser's daughters and ended up owning the business. Great-grandson Albert Reimann Jr. took over after his father died in 1952 and added consumer goods. Initially, each of the nine children had inherited 11.1% ownership in JAB upon Albert's death in 1984. In the following years, five of the heirs sold their stakes to the other four: Matthias Reimann-Andersen, Renate Reimann-Haas, Stefan Reimann-Andersen and Wolfgang Reimann. As of January 2015, each of the four owns about $3.8 billion in JAB shares.

The family maintains almost pathological secrecy. In the opaque world of European industrial dynasties, few names hold more quiet power—and more controversy—than the Reimann family. With an estimated fortune of $33 billion, they are among Germany's wealthiest families. Yet unlike the loud opulence of new money, the Reimanns have long embraced a culture of silence. It is said that upon turning 18, family heirs sign a pledge to avoid public attention—an oath reflected in their near-total absence from media, social events, or corporate headlines. But while the Reimanns themselves stay silent, the companies they own speak volumes. Through JAB Holding Company, they control or hold major stakes in some of the most recognizable names in consumer goods and food service.

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The Shadow of History

In March 2019, a German newspaper revealed what the family had tried for decades to suppress. In March 2019, a German newspaper revealed that Albert Reimann Sr., and his son Albert Reimann Jr., were enthusiastic supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party well before they took power, and profited from forced labor, both in their industrial chemicals company in southern Germany and in their own home. The revelations sparked ethical questions about consumer support for companies that owe their success in part to the historical use of forced labor. Two months later, several of the Reimanns revealed to The New York Times that their mother, Emilie Landecker, Albert Jr.'s mistress, baptized as a Catholic like her mother, was the daughter of Alfred Landecker, a Jewish man deported to the Izbica Ghetto in 1942.

The report found that Reimann Sr. and Reimann Jr. were fervent anti-Semites and enthusiastic Nazi supporters, with the elder Reimann donating to the SS as early as 1931, two years before Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. During WWII, their industrial chemicals factory in southern Germany was powered by forced laborers: Russian and Eastern European civilians deported from their homes by the Nazis, along with prisoners of war from France. By 1943, the family's company employed as many as 175 forced workers—a third of its workforce—who helped produce items for the German army, according to the Agence France-Presse. The Reimanns' also used forced laborers in their private villas. Workers were beaten, and women at the family's factory were made to stand at attention in their barracks while naked.

The family who owns Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and Panera Bread is donating $5.5 million to Holocaust survivors after learning that their ancestors supported the Nazi regime and used Russian civilians and French war prisoners as forced laborers to work in their factory. The donation by the Reimann family to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany was announced Thursday and will help thousands of survivors in need. "Elderly, poor Holocaust survivors need food, medicine and heat in the winter. These funds will enable thousands of survivors to live in dignity," Julius Berman, conference president, said in a statement.

This historical burden hangs over JAB's empire, a reminder that behind some of the world's most beloved coffee brands lies a lineage marked by history's darkest chapter.

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The Shopping Spree Begins

Since 2012, Luxembourg-based holding group JAB Holding has been quietly consolidating international coffee and bakery businesses under its umbrella. JAB, which does not disclose its financial information and tends not to speak to the press, began its coffee shopping spree by acquiring Peet's Coffee and Tea in 2012.

Peet's Coffee and Tea: JAB acquired Peet's Coffee and Tea for $973.9M in July 2012, marking its entry into the coffee space. Founded in 1966, CA-based Peet's operated 196 coffee shops when it was acquired.

The Peet's acquisition signaled JAB's ambition. In 2012, Peet's was taken private when it was acquired by JAB Holding Company, a German investment group, for $977.6 million, or $73.50 per share. At that time, the acquisition was one of the largest prices paid for a Berkeley-founded company.

Then came the real prize. In 2013, the German investor group JAB Holding Company made an offer to purchase D.E Master Blenders 1753 for $9.8 billion.

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The Mondelez Mega-Merger

With D.E Master Blenders under control, JAB orchestrated the deal that would create a coffee giant. In May 2014, D.E Master Blenders 1753 announced to acquire a majority stake in Mondelez's coffee business (outside of France) to form Jacobs Douwe Egberts, it would combine brands Jacobs, Carte Noire, Gevalia, Kenco, Tassimo and Millicano from Mondelez International and Douwe Egberts, L'OR, Pilao and Senseo from D.E Master Blenders.

In May 2014 the company announced plans to merge with the coffee division of American food conglomerate Mondelez International. The merger received approval from the European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager on 5 May 2015, subject to several conditions. These included a requirement that Merrild and Carte Noire brands be sold (now owned by competitor Luigi Lavazza S.p.A.), and that the Senseo brand in Austria be licensed to a competitor.

What matters for investors: JAB's strategy was clear: aggregate heritage brands at scale, capture supply chain efficiencies, and create a pure-play coffee champion to rival Nestlé. The approach resembled the beer industry's consolidation, where AB InBev and Heineken absorbed competitors until duopoly emerged.

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VI. INFLECTION POINT #2: Building the Third-Wave Portfolio (2014–2016)

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Peet's Acquires the Cool Kids

With Peet's in hand, JAB embarked on a strategy to capture the specialty coffee zeitgeist. The company went on to acquire Mighty Leaf Tea in 2014, its first of 3 acquisitions in the space. Peet's then dove into premium third-wave coffee, a movement marked by the desire to produce high-quality coffee, and acquired both Stumptown and Intelligentsia in 2015.

Stumptown and Intelligentsia weren't just coffee companies—they were cultural icons. Stumptown, founded in Portland, Oregon, pioneered the direct-trade sourcing model that connected roasters directly with farmers. Intelligentsia, based in Chicago, helped establish the notion that coffee could be appreciated like wine, with terroir and processing methods mattering as much as roast profile.

The business saw further expansion with the acquisition of premium tea manufacturer Mighty Leaf Tea in 2014. The following year, Peet's added Stumptown and Intelligentsia, both esteemed craft coffee producers founded by former Peet's employees, to the family.

The strategic logic was elegant: the mass-market brands (Jacobs, Douwe Egberts) provided cash flow and distribution muscle, while the specialty brands (Peet's, Stumptown, Intelligentsia) provided premiumization runway and credibility with discerning consumers. Few conglomerates have successfully straddled both worlds.

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The Keurig Deal

The 2016 acquisition of Keurig Green Mountain marked JAB's boldest move. Keurig Green Mountain: In 2016, JAB announced a $13.9B cash acquisition of Keurig Green Mountain. Coffee and coffee machine maker Keurig Green Mountain had seen its stock plunge over 70% throughout 2015, which perhaps made it an attractive target.

In March 2016, JAB and other investors acquired Keurig Green Mountain for $13.9 billion.

This wasn't just about coffee—it was about controlling the platform. Keurig's single-serve machines and K-Cup ecosystem represented what Nespresso had achieved in Europe: a closed-loop system where machine sales drove pod sales in perpetuity. JAB now controlled competing single-serve ecosystems on both sides of the Atlantic.

What matters for investors: JAB's acquisition spree created the most diversified coffee portfolio in the industry, spanning price points from everyday instant to $20-per-pound single-origin beans. The challenge: maintaining brand authenticity while extracting synergies.

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VII. INFLECTION POINT #3: The JDE Peet's Merger & IPO (2019–2020)

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Combining the Empires

In December 2019, JAB consolidated its coffee assets. Jacobs Douwe Egberts merged with Peet's Coffee, another coffee business owned by JAB Holding, to form JDE Peet's which would own the Peet's chain, as well as brands including: Jacobs Coffee, Douwe Egberts, Moccona, Super Coffee, Owl Coffee, OldTown White Coffee, Kenco and Pickwick, and brewing systems including Senseo and Tassimo.

JDE Peet's was formed in December 2019 when JAB combined its Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) and Peet's Coffee holdings into a single coffee and tea company, which was taken public via an initial public offering in May 2020. JAB acquired Peet's in 2012 for nearly $1 billion and Douwe Egberts in 2013 for $9.8 billion, merging the latter in 2014 with Mondelez's coffee business to create JDE.

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The Pandemic IPO

The timing of the IPO couldn't have been more dramatic. JDE Peet's B.V. (the "Company"), the world's largest pure-play coffee and tea group by revenue, today announced that the ordinary shares (the "Ordinary Shares") offered in the offering (the "Offer") have been priced at €31.50 per share (the "Offer Price"). Listing of, and first trading on an "as-if-and-when-issued/delivered" basis in, the Ordinary Shares on Euronext Amsterdam will commence today Friday, 29 May 2020 (the "First Trading Date").

Pure play coffee and tea group JDE Peet's BV priced its initial public offering at €31.50 ($35.01) per share, valuing it at €15.6 billion ($17.3 billion) and making it one of the biggest IPO's of the year so far.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered cafes and offices worldwide, paradoxically benefited JDE Peet's. Around 80% of the company's revenue comes from coffee consumed at home, a market that has continued to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Year-over-year revenue at the Amsterdam-based company was up 3% in the first quarter ended March 31 to €1.68 billion. The company currently has a 10% share of the at-home coffee market, according to Euromonitor, second only to Nestle, which has slightly less than a quarter of the market.

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Stock Performance: The Disappointment

The post-IPO performance has been sobering. JDEP reached its all-time high on Aug 4, 2020 with the price of 39.96 EUR, and its all-time low was 16.02 EUR and was reached on Feb 6, 2025.

Since its 2020 initial public offering, JDE Peet's shares have dropped by over a third. The company now holds just 11% of the portioned coffee market – less than a third of Nestlé's share.

What matters for investors: The IPO provided JAB with liquidity and Mondelez with an exit, but public market investors have been underwhelmed. The share price decline reflected concerns about market share erosion, commodity inflation, and execution challenges.

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VIII. Recent Developments & Strategic Shifts (2021–2025)

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Continued M&A and Geographic Expansion

JDE Peet's continued acquiring. On 4 January 2024, JDE Peet's completed the acquisition of the Brazilian coffee & tea business Indústrias Alimentícias Maratá Ltda ("Maratá") from JAV Group for a total purchase consideration of EUR 682 million, net of cash acquired.

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The Russia Decision

One decision proved particularly controversial. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, most Western companies exited the Russian market. JDE Peet's chose a different path.

For the coffee and tea company, Russia remains a problem: JDE Peet's has decided to remain active in the country as one of very few Western companies. Coffee is an essential product, the multinational explains, and the Russian government has threatened nationalisation should the producer close its coffee roasting plant there. Therefore, the company has decided not to sell international brands in Russia from now on, only local products. The financial impact of this decision is still highly uncertain.

CEO Fabien Simon said the company would stay. "We would risk that our assets and intellectual properties would be nationalised by the Russian state or given to third parties in Russia," he said during an investor call. Moscow last month took control of Danone's Essential Dairy and Plant-based (EDP) subsidiary, for which the group had been seeking a buyer, as well as beer company Carlsberg's stake in a local brewer. Simon also said JDE Peet's was staying in Russia because its products were essential and their sale was fully compliant with sanctions.

Second, JDE Peet's has 900 employees in Russia who he says would be unfairly punished if it left. And third, Simon said that if the company were to leave Russia, its brands and intellectual property would likely be seized and given to a third party. "We might not have said what people wanted to hear at the beginning, but we are taking a very authentic and honest approach," Simon said.

The rebranding cost was substantial. JDE Peet's rebranding of its Jacobs coffee brand for the Russian market alone resulted in an impairment of €185 million ($202.80 million) in the first half of the year.

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JAB's Strategic Pivot

By 2024, JAB appeared to be pivoting away from coffee. JAB's retreat from its aggressive consumer-focused strategy is emblematic of wider trends affecting the F&B sector globally. Rising inflation, changing consumer habits, and pandemic-related disruptions have all conspired to diminish profit margins in an industry that traditionally offered steady returns. For JAB, the cracks in its F&B empire became visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. The firm's holdings, including coffee chains and fast-casual brands, were hit hard. Since its 2020 initial public offering, JDE Peet's shares have dropped by over a third.

Yet in October 2024, JAB doubled down. JAB today announced that it agreed to acquire Mondelez's (Nasdaq: MDLZ) 86 million shares in JDE Peet's (EURONEXT: JDEP) for €25.10 per share. Additionally, JAB has distributed shares of JDE Peet's to more than 70 limited partners of JAB Consumer Partners (JCP), significantly increasing the free float of JDE Peet's. This is the final distribution of JDE Peet's shares to JCP investors.

Following Monday's move, JAB's stake in the Amsterdam-based coffee company will rise to 68%, it said in the statement.

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2024-2025 Financial Performance

Organic sales up +5.3%, driven by 4.5% price and 0.7% volume/mix; Reported sales up 7.9%. Organic adjusted gross profit up +6.1%; Reported gross profit up +7.9%. Organic adjusted EBIT up +10.4% to EUR 1.3 billion. Free cash flow of EUR 1,044 million; Net leverage at 2.7x. Proposal to increase cash dividend by 4.3% to EUR 0.73 per share. Intention to launch multi-year share buyback programme of up to EUR 1 bn, with EUR 250 mln in 2025.

Excluding a 4.7% positive contribution from the consolidation of Maratá and Caribou and a -2.1% effect related to foreign exchange, total sales increased by 5.3% organically. Organic sales growth reflects a price effect of 4.5% and a volume/mix effect of 0.7%. All categories contributed to the organic sales growth with double-digit growth in Beans, high single-digit growth in Capsules and Instants, and mid-single-digit growth in Roast & Ground. Adjusted EBIT increased organically by 10.4% with positive contribution from all four segments and driven by an organic increase of 6.1% in adjusted gross profit and disciplined cost control. A&P spend was slightly lower in the year, reflecting a high comparable base from the 2023 U.S. launch of L'OR Barista, which required less investments in its second year.

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IX. INFLECTION POINT #4: The Keurig Dr Pepper Acquisition (2025)

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The $18 Billion Megadeal

On August 25, 2025, the coffee industry experienced its most seismic shift in years. Keurig Dr Pepper will acquire Dutch coffee and tea company JDE Peet's in a roughly $18 billion deal.

Keurig Dr Pepper will pay JDE Peet's shareholders 31.85 euros ($37.30) per share in cash, representing a 33% premium on the Dutch's firm's 90-day volume-weighted average stock price, which represents a total equity purchase of 15.7 billion euros ($18.4 billion).

Acquisition to create global coffee leader serving 100+ countries with an unparalleled brand portfolio across all coffee segments, channels and price points. Subsequent separation to establish a fast-growing and scaled North American refreshment beverage player and the world's #1 pure-play coffee company.

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The Spin-Off Structure

This exciting deal will create a global coffee champion through the complementary combination of KDP's Keurig®, North America's leading single-serve coffee platform, with JDE Peet's worldwide portfolio of beloved coffee brands. After the acquisition closes, KDP plans to separate into two independent, U.S.-listed publicly traded companies, creating a scaled growth challenger in North America's attractive refreshment beverages market ("Beverage Co.") and the world's #1 pure-play coffee company ("Global Coffee Co."). Under the terms of the transaction, KDP will pay JDE Peet's shareholders €31.85 per share in cash, a 33% premium to JDE Peet's 90-day volume-weighted average stock price, representing a total equity consideration of €15.7 billion.

It will also unlock incremental operating and financial benefits, including approximately $400 million in anticipated cost synergies to be realized over three years and EPS accretion expected to start in year one of the combination. Upon separation, Global Coffee Co., with approximately $16 billion in combined annual net sales, will be the world's largest pure-play coffee company. With reach across more than 100 countries, including 40 in which the company holds the #1 or #2 market position by sales, Global Coffee Co. will enjoy an unparalleled portfolio across all coffee segments, channels and price points. Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages globally, representing a $400 billion category with rapid growth in emerging markets.

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Market Reaction

Shares of JDE Peet's traded in Amsterdam soared 17.48% on Monday after the deal was announced. It was the stock's best day on record as investors snapped up shares ahead of the acquisition. Meanwhile, shares of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) fell 11.48%. It was the stock's worst day since March 2020.

THE announced merger of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) and JDE Peet's has, in one stroke, redrawn the global coffee map. With combined annual net coffee sales of some $16 billion, the new entity becomes the world's second-largest coffee business, behind Nestlé, narrowing the competitive gap more sharply than any deal since Nestlé swallowed Starbucks' retail rights in 2018. KDP will acquire JDE Peet's in an all-cash deal valued at about $18 billion, combining Keurig's dominance in North American single-serve coffee with JDE Peet's global brand portfolio. Once completed, KDP will split into two listed firms: a North America-focused beverage company and a standalone "Global Coffee Co.," set to become the world's largest pure-play coffee business.

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The Competitive Landscape Reshaped

Maxime Stranart, analyst at ING, comments: "The new Coffee entity will be somewhat similar in size to the coffee business of Nestle. The two would each have a market share of around 20% in the global CPG coffee market." The deal also changes the global competitive landscape. Maxime Stranart, analyst at ING, comments: "The new Coffee entity will be somewhat similar in size to the coffee business of Nestle. The two would each have a market share of around 20% in the global CPG coffee market."

KDP's acquisition of JDE Peet's makes the new Global Coffee Co the world's largest pure-play coffee company, with around $16bn in revenues a year. But Nestlé still outpaces this with $29.5bn in coffee revenues a year.

"It is important to note that Nestlé still operates at a different level of system strength, especially with Nespresso, Vertuo, Dolce Gusto, and the Starbucks alliance," said Gerd Müller-Pfeiffer of International Coffee Consulting. "KDP + JDE Peet's is strong in scale and brand breadth, yet more fragmented in capsule and system strategy."

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Transaction Timeline

The commencement of the tender offer and the closing of the acquisition of JDE Peet's, which was unanimously approved by JDE Peet's Board of Directors, are expected to occur in the first half of 2026, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary pre-offer conditions.

At Investor Day, outlines conviction in the JDE Peet's acquisition and robust plans to execute integration and separation. Announces capital-efficient $7 billion strategic investment co-led by Apollo and KKR to reduce projected net leverage at acquisition close; sets targeted capital structure for each company at separation. BURLINGTON, Mass. and FRISCO, Texas, Oct. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Keurig Dr Pepper (NASDAQ: KDP) announced new details about strategy, leadership and financing related to the acquisition of JDE Peet's and subsequent planned separation into two independent companies.

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X. Investment Framework: Bull Case, Bear Case, and Key Metrics

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Competitive Position Analysis

Porter's Five Forces Assessment:

1. Threat of New Entrants: MODERATE-LOW. Coffee roasting requires modest capital, but building brands with national or global distribution is extraordinarily difficult. The at-home coffee market is dominated by established players with decades of brand equity.

2. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: MODERATE. Green coffee is a commodity, but quality variation and geographic concentration (Brazil and Vietnam dominate production) create pricing power for origin-specific coffees. Climate volatility adds supply risk.

3. Bargaining Power of Buyers: HIGH. Retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and European grocery chains have substantial negotiating leverage. Private-label coffee has eroded branded share in some markets.

4. Threat of Substitutes: LOW-MODERATE. Tea, energy drinks, and other caffeinated beverages compete at the margin, but coffee consumption habits prove remarkably durable across cultures.

5. Industry Rivalry: HIGH. Nestlé, Starbucks, Lavazza, and regional players compete aggressively on shelf placement, marketing, and innovation. The capsule segment has particularly intense competition.

Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers Framework:

• Scale Economies: JDE Peet's benefits from procurement scale in green coffee sourcing and manufacturing efficiency across its global footprint.
• Network Effects: Limited in CPG coffee, but Keurig's closed-loop pod system creates switching costs.
• Counter-Positioning: Third-wave brands (Stumptown, Intelligentsia) offer differentiation against mass-market competitors.
• Switching Costs: Modest for consumers; higher for businesses using out-of-home coffee systems.
• Branding: Strong heritage brands (270+ years for Douwe Egberts) create durable consumer preference.
• Cornered Resource: Access to premium specialty coffee relationships and roasting expertise.
• Process Power: Decades of roasting, blending, and supply chain optimization.

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Bull Case

1. Category Resilience: Coffee consumption is remarkably stable across economic cycles. The $400 billion global coffee market continues growing, particularly in emerging markets.

2. Premiumization Tailwind: Consumers worldwide are trading up from instant to ground, and from ground to capsules. JDE Peet's portfolio spans the entire ladder.

3. Merger Synergies: The KDP transaction promises $400 million in cost synergies over three years. Combined with complementary geographies (KDP in North America, JDE in Europe/Asia), the merged entity has clear efficiency opportunities.

4. Pure-Play Focus: Post-merger, Global Coffee Co. will be the world's largest pure-play coffee company, potentially commanding a premium multiple from coffee-focused investors.

5. Dividend Yield: At current prices (elevated by the acquisition premium), JDE Peet's offered an attractive yield—approximately 4% historically with 60-70% payout ratios.

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Bear Case

1. Commodity Exposure: Green coffee prices have been volatile, and climate change threatens supply from key growing regions. Passing through costs requires brand strength that may be tested.

2. Market Share Concerns: As the second-largest global coffee manufacturer behind Nestlé, JDE Peet's aims to be a disruptor and driver of innovation in the coffee sector. However, since its listing in 2020, execution has not always delivered on this vision, and its global market share has remained stagnant at around 10% and slightly declining in its core Western European market.

3. Integration Risk: Combining KDP's and JDE Peet's operations across 40+ manufacturing facilities and 100+ countries is complex. Cultural integration between American and European management teams adds difficulty.

4. Capsule System Fragmentation: Yet the industrial reality is messier: questions over which systems to back, how to reconcile brand overlap, and whether consumers will tolerate yet another round of pod or capsule wars remain unresolved. Unlike Nestlé, which has consolidated consumer loyalty behind two capsule formats – Nespresso and Vertuo – the new "Global Coffee Co." inherits a jumble of systems. Keurig dominates in America, but in Europe the market is split across L'OR, Tassimo and Senseo.

5. Russia Overhang: The decision to remain in Russia, while financially rational, creates ongoing reputational risk and potential for future sanctions complications.

6. Debt Load: The merged firm will carry debt at roughly five times EBITDA, leaving ratings agencies circling with reviews.

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Key Performance Indicators to Monitor

For investors tracking JDE Peet's and the eventual Global Coffee Co., three KPIs matter most:

1. Organic Sales Growth: The single most important indicator of competitive health. Organic growth strips out acquisitions and currency effects to reveal underlying demand for the brands. Target: mid-single-digit organic growth annually.

2. Adjusted EBIT Margin: Coffee is a scale business where efficiency translates directly to profitability. Organic adjusted EBIT up +10.4% to EUR 1.3 billion. The ability to expand margins while managing commodity inflation demonstrates pricing power.

3. Free Cash Flow Conversion: Coffee is a cash-generative business when managed well. Free cash flow of EUR 1,044 million; Net leverage at 2.7x. FCF conversion above 80% of adjusted EBIT signals healthy working capital management and appropriate capital expenditure discipline.

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XI. Conclusion: From Joure to Global Domination

The story of JDE Peet's spans 270 years, four continents, and some of the most consequential corporate deals of the past decade. It connects a Dutch sailor opening a grocery shop in 1753 to a secretive German billionaire family to a Dutch immigrant teaching Americans how to appreciate coffee to an $18 billion acquisition that will reshape the global coffee industry.

Several themes emerge:

Heritage has value. In an era of disposable brands and fleeting consumer attention, the Douwe Egberts seal (trusted since 1753) and the Peet's legacy (the "Big Bang" of specialty coffee) represent competitive assets that cannot be easily replicated.

Consolidation creates both opportunity and risk. JAB's rollup strategy assembled an unrivaled brand portfolio, but the stock price performance since the 2020 IPO suggests that financial engineering alone cannot substitute for execution.

Coffee is remarkably resilient. Through world wars, depressions, pandemics, and shifting consumer preferences, coffee consumption has proven extraordinarily durable. The category's stability makes it attractive for long-term investors, even as competitive intensity remains high.

The final chapter is unwritten. With the KDP acquisition expected to close in the first half of 2026, JDE Peet's stands at the threshold of its most transformative moment. The creation of Global Coffee Co.—the world's largest pure-play coffee company—represents either the culmination of a decade of strategic execution or the beginning of integration challenges that could take years to resolve.

From Egbert Douwes' first sale of Indonesian coffee beans to Frisian villagers in 1753, through Alfred Peet's lonely crusade for quality in 1960s America, to the JAB-orchestrated consolidation marathon—this is a story of how passionate craftsmen and aggressive capitalists together built an empire dedicated to humanity's most beloved stimulant.

The next cup of Jacobs, Douwe Egberts, L'OR, Senseo, Peet's, or Major Dickason's Blend that crosses your lips connects you to that 270-year journey. It is, quite literally, history in every cup.

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Material Regulatory/Legal Considerations:

• The KDP acquisition of JDE Peet's remains subject to regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions. Antitrust reviews in the EU and US could impose conditions or delays.
• JDE Peet's continued operations in Russia, while compliant with current sanctions, represent ongoing reputational and regulatory risk should sanctions regimes expand.
• EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) compliance requirements for green coffee imports, though delayed, will impose additional supply chain verification costs.