Coffee and beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper and coffee company JDE Peet’s have entered into a definitive agreement under which KDP will acquire JDE Peet’s in an $18.35 billion all-cash transaction.
Keurig Green Mountain acquired Dr Pepper Snapple Group in 2018. After the acquisition of JDE Peet’s closes, KDP plans to separate into two independent, U.S.-listed publicly traded companies—a coffee company and a beverage company.
The deal will create a global coffee company through the combination of KDP’s Keurig single-serve coffee platform in North America with JDE Peet’s worldwide portfolio of coffee brands with a complementary geographic footprint across developed and emerging markets.
Keurig Dr Pepper, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, and Frisco, Texas, is a leading beverage company in North America, with a portfolio of more than 125 owned, licensed and partner brands. With annual revenue of more than $15 billion, it holds leadership positions in beverage categories including carbonated soft drinks, coffee, tea, water, juice and mixers, and has the leading single-serve coffee brewing system in the United States and Canada, the company said. Its partnership model builds emerging growth platforms in categories such as premium coffee, energy, sports hydration and ready-to-drink coffee. Brands include Keurig, Dr Pepper, Canada Dry, Mott’s, A&W, Peñafiel, Snapple, 7UP, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Ghost, Clamato, Core Hydration and The Original Donut Shop.
With a nearly 300-year legacy, JDE Peet’s, based in Amsterdam, is a leading global pure-play coffee company that serves approximately 4,400 cups of coffee per second in more than 100 markets, with a portfolio of brands including Peet’s, L’OR, Jacobs, Douwe Egberts, Kenco, Pilao, OldTown, Super and Moccona. In 2024, JDE Peet’s generated total sales of $10.3 billion and employed a global workforce of more than 21,000 employees.
The acquisition of JDE Peet’s will significantly enhance KDP’s coffee positioning, it said, creating a “strong, resilient and diversified” global portfolio. The companies expect that it will unlock incremental operating and financial benefits including approximately $400 million in anticipated cost synergies to be realized over three years and earnings per share accretion to start in the first year.
Upon separation, the new JDE Peet’s, with approximately $16 billion in combined annual net sales, will be the world’s largest pure-play coffee company, KDP said, with reach across more than 100 countries, including 40 in which the company holds the No. 1 or No. 2 market position by sales.
The new beverage company, with more than $11 billion in annual net sales, will be a scaled challenger in the $300 billion North American refreshment beverage market, KDP said. It will have a portfolio of iconic and emerging brands, a differentiated and expanding direct-store-delivery (DSD) system and a capital-efficient growth model.
Upon completion of the acquisition of JDE Peet’s and until the intended separation is complete, the combined company will be led by KDP’s management team, including CEO Tim Cofer and CFO Sudhanshu Priyadarshi.
Upon completion of the separation, Cofer will become CEO of the beverage company and Priyadarshi will become CEO of the coffee company. Rafa Oliveira will continue to serve as CEO of JDE Peet’s until the closing of the acquisition.
The global headquarters for the coffee company will be Burlington, Massachusetts, and its international headquarters will be in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The beverage company will be headquartered in Frisco, Texas.
‘Global coffee giant’
“Today’s announcement marks a transformational moment in the beverage industry, as we build on KDP’s disruptive legacy by creating two winning companies, including a new global coffee champion,” said Tim Cofer, CEO of KDP. “Through the complementary combination of Keurig and JDE Peet’s, we are seizing an exceptional opportunity to create a global coffee giant. This is the right time for this transaction, with KDP in a position of operational and financial strength, momentum across our evolved portfolio and increasing coffee category resilience. By creating two sharply focused beverage companies with attractive and tailored growth propositions and capital allocation strategies, we are poised to generate significant shareholder value in both the near and long term.”
“We are excited to join forces with Keurig to chart the future of global coffee by leveraging our combined portfolio of the world’s most beloved coffee brands,” said Rafa Oliveira, CEO of JDE Peet’s. “This highly complementary transaction will deliver an attractive premium for our shareholders and will create compelling future growth opportunities for our employees, customers and other stakeholders. We are incredibly proud of the formidable global platform that we have built at JDE Peet’s and, together with Keurig, we are looking forward to powering a new era of coffee innovation and leadership.”
The new, independent coffee company also has a global manufacturing footprint of more than 40 facilities, local route-to-market expertise and the ability to rapidly scale innovation across more brands and markets by leveraging a sophisticated supply chain, breadth of talent and local market experience.
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