Nestlé has announced plans to acquire the Seattle’s Best brand from Starbucks, adding it to a coffee portfolio that includes Nescafé, Nespresso and Blue Bottle.
Starbucks bought Seattle’s Best in 2003 and established it as a more affordable coffee brand. Starbucks already is in a partnership with Nestlé, called the Global Coffee Alliance, under which Nestlé packages and distributes Starbucks coffee at retail. Nestlé’s total global sales of Starbucks coffee reached about $3.08 billion in 2021.
This deal will give Nestlé complete control over Seattle’s Best. Terms were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.
Sales for Nestlé’s coffee group have totaled about $69.49 billion for the first nine months of this year, with organic sales growth of 8.5%.
"With the well-known Seattle's Best Coffee brand, we will continue to build our leadership in coffee by offering consumers more choice for their everyday coffee," David Rennie, head of Nestlé coffee brands, said in a statement.
About the Author
Pan Demetrakakes
Senior Editor
Pan has written about the food and beverage industry for more than 25 years. His areas of coverage have included formulations, processing, packaging, marketing and retailing. Pan worked for Food Processing Magazine for six years in the 1990s, where he was operations editor (his current role), touring dozens of food plants of every description. He has also worked for Packaging and Food & Beverage Packaging magazines, the latter as chief editor, during which he won three ASBPE awards. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in communications.