Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) has approved the acquisition of BrewGroup New Zealand, formerly Bell Tea & Coffee Company, for an undisclosed sum.
“For many years we have been impressed by the strong Kiwi presence of the BrewGroup and are very pleased to welcome them to our coffee and tea family. Together with our local market knowledge, our global infrastructure and a history of sustained category growth, this acquisition is a marriage made in heaven as we seek to further improve consumer choice across the coffee and tea category,” says David Ansell, Managing Director for JDE Australia and NZ.
Mark Hamilton, CEO BrewGroup NZ says over they years BrewGroup has worked hard to establish a portfolio of uniquely New Zealand coffee and tea brands.
It is a leading national coffee and tea business based in Auckland, NZ. The company employs a team of more than 250 with offices and factories in Auckland and Christchurch. Originally founded in 1898, the company has over a century of expertise in coffee and tea buying and blending.
“Today marks the next step in our journey and I am particularly excited about the accessibility my team will have to JDE’s global innovation capabilities,” says Mark. “We look forward to an exciting future together in NZ and beyond.”
Mark will be leaving the business as CEO, but will remain on the JDE NZ board as a non-executive director.
The acquisition was completed on 30 November.
JDE New Zealand will now focus on leveraging the newly combined brand portfolio of leading consumer and commercial brands, and will continue to drive increased innovation locally with the goal of better serving coffee and tea to consumers in New Zealand.
JDE will also explore opportunities to increase exports and put some of the highly successful Kiwi brands on the global stage. The enlarged portfolio of JDE NZ will include Moccona, L’or, Bach Espresso, Hummingbird, Bell, Jed’s, Burtons, Gravity and Ti Ora.
JDE is the number two player in the Australian coffee market, growing fast and led by its strong Moccona brand.
“This is a defining moment for the NZ coffee and tea category. It also provides brands such as Jed’s and Ti Ora the opportunity to be sold in Australia and beyond,” David says.
The two companies will continue to operate as separate units for the next two months with “business as usual throughout the December and January holiday period” until integration begins in February 2017.