Keurig Owner JAB Continues Building Coffee Empire With Krispy Kreme Acquisition

WINSTON SALEM, NC -- JAB Holding Co. and a minority investor, BDT Capital Partners, are buying Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for $1.35 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

In December, JAB acquired Keurig Green Mountain for $13.9 billion [Read More]. In recent years it has also acquired Caribou Coffee, Peet's Coffee & Tea and Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

It struck a deal in 2013 to buy D.E. Master Blenders 1753, and it later agreed to a deal with Mondelez International to combine their coffee businesses, which created Jacobs Douwe Egberts, widely regarded as the biggest pure-play coffee company in the world. JAB also has stakes in the cosmetics maker Coty and the shoe designer Jimmy Choo.

Krispy Kreme, founded in 1937, is famous for its doughnuts, but has been stepping up its focus and marketing efforts on its coffee.

As part of the agreement, Krispy Kreme will remain independently operated from its headquarters in Winston-Salem, NC, and will no longer trade on the public markets.