SEATTLE and ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. -- Starbucks and Unilever have entered into a definitive agreement for Unilever to acquire the Tazo tea brand from Starbucks, including its signature recipes, intellectual property and inventory, for $384 million. Starbucks will implement a single tea brand strategy and focus with its Teavana brand.
Tazo had sales of $112.5 million over the past year, it said. It offers specialty black, green and herbal teas, as well as liquid concentrates focused in the chai latte segment.
Starbucks purchased Tazo in 1999 for $8.1 million. It sells the brand primarily in grocery, mass merchandise and convenience-store channels, offered in formats including packaged teas, K-cup pods and bottled ready-to-drink (RTD) teas.
“With its strong appeal to millennials, Tazo is a perfect strategic fit for our U.S. portfolio that includes exciting new brands such as Seventh Generation, Dollar Shave Club and Sir Kensington’s,” said Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. “Tazo’s solid position in the fast-growing specialty-tea segment, coupled with Unilever’s tea expertise, presents a fantastic growth opportunity.”
Seattle-based Starbucks announced in July that it would close all 379 of its Teavana stores by the end of 2018. It said that the "principally mall-based Teavana retail stores have been persistently underperforming."
The company will continue to invest in the growth, innovation and development of the Teavana brand of teas in its stores and in channels outside its stores, it said.
In the past 12 months, Starbucks has sold more than $1.6 billion of Teavana beverages in Starbucks stores and launched RTD Teavana Craft Iced Teas through its partnership with Anheuser-Busch InBev. It plans to enter the packaged-tea category in 2018.
“Over the past five years, we have established Teavana as our primary global brand focused on the premium-tea segment. With our growth strategy for premium tea exclusively focused on Teavana, we are pleased to transition our Tazo business to Unilever,” said Kevin Johnson, president and CEO of Starbucks. “We continue to see significant growth in our tea business through our Teavana brand, and this transition supports our strategy to elevate the premium-tea experience for our customers.”
Starbucks and Unilver said that they expect the Tazo transaction to close during fourth-quarter of 2017, with a complete transition between the two companies by the end of 2018, subject to regulatory approval.
Unilever supplies food, home care, personal care and refreshment products. In the United States, its portfolio includes brands such as Axe, Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, Country Crock, Good Humor, Hellmann's, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Klondike, Lipton, Magnum, Popsicle, Promise, Q-tips, Seventh Generation and Vaseline, among others.
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