Starbucks Buying Seattle's Best Coffee

[nightscotsman]

Starbucks to Acquire Seattle's Best Coffee

The deal includes 129 Seattle’s Best Coffee cafes and 21 Torrefazione Italia cafes as well as both brands’ wholesale business, which includes supermarket and food-service accounts.

[vengroff]

Not suprising. They did the same thing in London with that chain whose name I can no longer remember. If Teaism is smart about it, I bet they can build themselves into a the next acquisition target within a few years.

[Schielke]

I wonder if they have Tully's in their sights...not that Tully's would likely sell to them.

Ben

[Coop]

Herr Schultz's plan for worldwide domination continues. Can you get Peet's in Seattle?

[col klink]

I wonder if they have Tully's in their sights...not that Tully's would likely sell to them.

Ben

Tully's is more likely to fold than to be bought out. SBC has decent business plans and it's making money whereas Tully's is bleeding like a sieve.

[tighe]

It will be interesting to see if they completely assimilate SBC or if they keep the brand name. Of the major coffee companies, SBC's product has always been my favorite. Ironically, it has become difficult to find here in Seattle, but I see it in other cities pretty regularly. Overall I think this is really unfortunate.

[Schielke]

All three of them (bucks, tullys, and SBC) are roughly the same in my opinion as far as taste and quality go. Not bad, but certainly not as good as you can get in Seattle.

Ben

[hollywood]

So why is the stock down today? Maybe it's that 47:1 P/E ratio.

[Aurora]

SBC was started by former Starbuck's employees. They have returned to the fold because they are profitable and because Starbucks obviously made an offer that couldn't be refused. This is not the first time Starbucks has attempted to acquire SBC. Previous attempts were not successful.

[Steve Klc]

Darren--the Seattle Coffee Company? Here's the take of a blogger on the scene in the UK:

http://michaeljennings.blogspot.com/2002_0...e.html#78696337

http://michaeljennings.blogspot.com/2002_1...e.html#83371448

Thanks also to Virginia Postrel on this issue:

http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/

[tighe]

SBC was started by former Starbuck's employees.  They have returned to the fold because they are profitable and because Starbucks obviously made an offer that couldn't be refused.  This is not the first time Starbucks has attempted to acquire SBC.  Previous attempts were not successful.

According to timlines published in today's Seattle Times, SBC was founded before Starbuck's, so perhaps you are thinking of a different firm. Undoubtedly there are former Starbucks employees who work for SBC. The Times article also said that there are no immediate plans for the SBC or Torrefazione brands to be eliminated.

SBC Timeline (pdf)

Starbucks Timeline (pdf)

[Aurora]

SBC was started by former Starbuck's employees.  They have returned to the fold because they are profitable and because Starbucks obviously made an offer that couldn't be refused.  This is not the first time Starbucks has attempted to acquire SBC.  Previous attempts were not successful.

According to timlines published in today's Seattle Times, SBC was founded before Starbuck's, so perhaps you are thinking of a different firm. Undoubtedly there are former Starbucks employees who work for SBC. The Times article also said that there are no immediate plans for the SBC or Torrefazione brands to be eliminated.

SBC Timeline (pdf)

Starbucks Timeline (pdf)

Tighe - I see where I went wrong - many apologies Seattle. It pays to do a little double-checking prior to posting Thanks for the additional info.

One of SBC's strategies is/was to allow Starbucks to invest in educating consumers about specialty and gourmet coffee in various markets, then move in and set up shop and benefit from already informed consumers. This was most certainly the case in Chicago. In the process of opening stores SBC courted Starbucks employees for regional upper management positions (right, I've got it now).

Edited April 19, 2003 by Aurora (log)

[Schielke]

Tullys is notorious for this. They have been known to set up shop directly in sight of every starbucks.

I think it is hilarious.