Peet's Coffee

Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in
Peet's Coffee
Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to its darker roasted Arabica coffee in blends including French Roast
[1][2][3]
and grades appropriate for espresso drinks. Peet's offers freshly roasted beans, brewed coffee and espresso beverages,
as well as bottled cold brew.[4] In 2007, Peet's opened the first LEED Gold Certified roastery in the United States.[5] Peet’s
coffee is sold in over 14,000 grocery stores across the United States.[6] Type Subsidiary
Industry Coffee
Founded 1966
Contents Berkeley, California

History Founder Alfred Peet (1920–2007)

Locations Headquarters Emeryville, California

Licensed partnerships Key people Kenneth "Casey" Keller,
Products CEO
Influence Doug Welsh, Roastmaster
See also Jim Reynolds,

References Roastmaster Emeritus

External links Jerry Baldwin, Board

Member
Products Coffee beans, coffee
History beverages,
teas, and food
Alfred Peet grew up in the Netherlands, where his father owned and operated a coffee wholesale and coffee bean grindery.
Peet trained with his father to roast and grind coffee. In 1938, at the age of 18, he moved to London to work for a coffee and Revenue $800M (FY 2016)
tea company. He also spent time in New Zealand and Indonesia before moving to San Francisco in 1955 where he worked for Number of 5,000
a coffee and tea importer.[7] employees
Parent JAB Holding Company
In 1966, Peet opened the first "Peet's Coffee, Tea & Spices" in Berkeley, California on Vine Street near the University of (2012–present)
California, Berkeley campus. It originally sold coffee beans, not cups of coffee. His coffee beans were hand-roasted in small Stumptown Coffee
Subsidiaries
batches. The company grew to four locations and became known as "Peet's Coffee and Tea."[8] Peet wanted to bring better Roasters
[9]
coffee to the American market and became known as "the godfather of gourmet coffee in the U.S." The original location at Intelligentsia Coffee &
Vine and Walnut remains open.[10] Tea
Mighty Leaf Tea
Peet sold his business to Sal Bonavita in 1979, but remained working with the company as a coffee buyer and consultant until
Website peets.com
1983.[11] In 1984, Jerry Baldwin, a Starbucks founder, bought Peet's four locations from Sal Bonavita. In 1987, Baldwin and (http://www.peets.com/)
his Starbucks co-investors sold Starbucks to focus on Peet's.[10] Howard Schultz, Starbucks' new owner, entered into a four-
year non-compete agreement in the Bay Area.

In 2001, the company was incorporated as Peet's Coffee and Tea Company and had its initial public offering. The company
was listed on the Nasdaq under the symbol PEET, and 3.3 million shares were sold at $8 a share. Shares climbed to $9.38 and
the company raised $26.4 million.[12][13]

Peet's opened a roasting plant in Alameda in 2007. This new location replaced the former operations in Emeryville, California,
and is the nation's first LEED Gold Certified roastery.[5][14]

In 2012, Peet's was taken private when it was acquired by Joh. A Benckiser, a German investment group, for $977.6 million, or
$73.50 per share. At that time, the acquisition was one of the largest prices paid for a Berkeley-founded company.[15] JAB Peet's original store in North Berkeley,
Holding (Joh. A Benckiser) also owns minority stakes in the consumer products companies Reckitt Benckiser, Coty, Inc. and California
control of luxury brands Bally, Belstaff and Jimmy Choo.[16] JAB Holding later acquired a portion of Caribou Coffee.[17]

In August 2014, Peet's acquired Mighty Leaf Tea, a specialty tea brand based in the Bay Area, in partnership with Next World Group.[18] It was announced in October 2015 that
Stumptown Coffee Roasters would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Peet's.[19] Later that same month, Peet's announced that it was acquiring a majority stake in Chicago-
based Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.[20][21][22]

In December 2016, Peet's announced that it was building a second roaster in Suffolk, Virginia. The 175,000-square-foot facility will cost $58 million and was set to open in
2018.[23] At that time, the Alameda roaster was producing approximately 1 million pounds of coffee each week.[6]

Peet's opened its first location in Shanghai, China, in October 2017.[24]

Locations
By 2018, Peet's operates over 200 retail locations in 11 states: California, Washington DC, Virginia, Tennessee, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts
[25]
and Maryland,[26] and has expanded to China opening a location in Shanghai.[27]

Peet's formerly operated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, but Peet's shuttered these stores in 2014 to focus on the areas it's growing in.[28]

By December 2016, Peet's coffee was sold in 14,000 grocery stores, universities, and wholesalers across the United States. They had over a dozen coffeebar locations in
Chicago and Boston as well as 23 in the Washington D.C. area at that time.[29]

Licensed partnerships
Peet's has outlets at many transit centers, including several airports such as William P. Hobby Airport, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Reno-Tahoe International
Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Philadelphia International Airport, Sacramento International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Hollywood
Burbank Airport, and all three major airports in the San Francisco Bay Area.[30]
In 2003, the first full-service Peet's coffeebar on a university campus was opened within the Clark Center building at Stanford University.[31] Peet's coffee is also currently
served at all Stanford dining locations. In 2005, UC Berkeley opened its own Peet's franchise on campus in Dwinelle Hall and as a campus restaurant near its existing dining
area. Similarly in 2009, coffeebars opened at the UW–Madison's Memorial Union, Villanova University and UC San Diego.[32]

Peet's donated $250,000 to the University of California, Davis to launch Coffee Center, a research hub dedicated to a
multidisciplinary study of coffee, in September 2016. UC Davis is the first university in the world to dedicate a rigorous
academic focus to post-harvest coffee. The program worked with the Specialty Coffee Association of America to get
prospective graduates access to grants and fellowships.[33] In April 2017, Peet's signed an agreement with UC Berkeley's
University Partnership Program to help fund student programs including student travel grants, scholarships and paid
internship opportunities.[34][35]

Products Peet's in Northeast Portland, Oregon

In September 2015, Peet's announced that it was adding all-day breakfast options to its menu. The change would be
implemented in the Chicago market, and eventually, would be added at all locations.[36]

Peet's Coffee started formulating the blend in 2014 and first added it to its coffeebar menu in summer 2015. In July 2016, Peet's released a complimentary line of bottled cold
brew coffee to 400 locations in the San Francisco area including Peet's coffeebars and grocery stores. Peet's coldbrew was initially offered in three flavors: Baridi Black, Coffee
au Lait, and Dark Chocolate.[37] Almond Milk was added to the line of bottled cold brew in May 2017.[38]

In December 2016, Peet’s added a Slow Bar to its newest D.C. coffeebar, featuring French press, pour-over and siphon brewing methods.[39]

Influence
When the three founders of Starbucks were looking to start their company, they contacted Peet, who "became like a father mentor" to them. He allowed the three young men
to copy the layout of his store and shared his suppliers.[40][41][42]

Peet's has a devoted following, sometimes known as "Peetniks", a portmanteau of Peets and beatniks.[43]

Peet's was one of the first coffee bean and brewed coffee retailers to offer specialty grade coffee, and to roast the beans longer, producing a liquor that is darker, more bitter,
with less of the sour taste of the coffees offered in the US at the time. They are viewed as one of the founding businesses in the gourmet coffee trade.

Two British men who worked at Peet's in the early 1990s later established Union Coffee Roasters in the UK.[44]

See also
◾ List of coffeehouse chains
◾ Coffee houses of the United States

References
1. William M. Pride; Robert J. Hughes. Foundations of Business (https://books.google.com/books?id=4NnMo0H9EL0C&pg=PA31).
2. Tina Gant (March 2009). International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 100 (https://books.google.com/?
id=OhkeAQAAMAAJ&q=%22peet%27s+coffee%22&dq=%22peet%27s+coffee%22). pp. 333–334. ISBN 9781558626348.
3. Ian Newton. The Coffee Culture (https://books.google.com/books?id=CCdw_whuke8C&pg=PT25).
4. McLellan, Michael. "Peet's Coffee & Tea. LLC" (http://subscriber.hoovers.com/H/company360/overview.html?companyld=53648000000000). Hoovers. Retrieved March 6,
2017.
5. Jones, Carolyn (May 29, 2007). "Peet's moves roasting plant to double output of coffee" (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
f=/c/a/2007/05/29/BAGBBQ32SI1.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea) San Francisco Chronicle, p. B-2.
6. John Kell (December 9, 2016). "Why Peet's Coffee Is Spending $58 Million on Fresher Coffee for the East Coast" (http://fortune.com/2016/12/09/peets-coffee-east-coast-
facility/). Fortune. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
7. "Alfred H. Peet [1920-2007]" (https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/alfred-h-peet/). New Netherland Institute.
8. "5 Business Lessons From the 50-Year-Old Company That Made Coffee Cool" (http://fortune.com/2016/04/01/peets-coffee-starbucks/). Fortune.
9. "Peets's Wants Customers to Know That Coffee Can Change Lives" (http://www.triplepundit.com/2017/03/peets-people-and-planet-coffee/). TriplePudit.
10. Knobel, Lance (July 23, 2012). "Peet's: Founded in Berkeley, acquired in Germany" (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/07/23/peets-founded-in-berkeley-acquired-in-
germany/). Berkeleyside.
11. Maxwell, Jill Hecht. "Alfred Peet: My Biggest Mistake" (https://www.inc.com/magazine/20010601/22709.html). Inc.
12. Vrana, Debora (January 25, 2001). "Peet's Coffee, First IPO of Year, Is Priced at $8, Low End of Range" (http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/25/business/fi-16729). Los
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13. "Peet's Coffee IPO slowly percolates" (http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2001/01/22/daily29.html). San Francisco Business Times. January 25, 2001.
14. "Campus, Peet's 10-year-partnership will boost student initiatives" (https://news.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Peets-release-Final2.pdf) (PDF). Berkeley
University of California. April 11, 2017.
15. Hsu, Tiffany (July 23, 2012). "Peet's Coffee & Tea sold for nearly $1 billion, but not to Starbucks" (http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/23/business/la-fi-mo-peets-coffee-
20120723). Los Angeles Times.
16. Merced, Michael J. de la. "Joh. A. Benckiser to Buy Peet's Coffee & Tea for $974 Million" (https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/joh-a-benckiser-to-buy-peets-coffee-
for-973-9-million/). Retrieved 15 August 2018.
17. "Caribou Coffee closing Ohio stores?" (http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/local_news/caribou-coffee-closing-its-ohio-stores). Retrieved 7 April 2013.
18. "Peet's Acquires Mighty Leaf Tea, Opens and Closes Midwest Stores" (http://dailycoffeenews.com/2014/08/04/peets-acquires-mighty-leaf-tea-opens-and-closes-midwest-
stores/). Daily Coffee News.
19. "Peet's Coffee Is Buying Stumptown Coffee Roasters" (http://www.wweek.com/news/2015/10/06/peets-coffee-is-buying-stumptown-coffee-roasters/). Willamette Week.
20. Galarza, Daniela (October 30, 2015). "Peet's Coffee & Tea Buys Intelligentsia Coffee" (http://www.eater.com/2015/10/30/9643642/blockbuster-peets-coffee-tea-buys-
intelligentsia-coffee). Eater. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
21. "Peet's Coffee Is Buying Intelligentsia. Here's Why Coffee Lovers Shouldn't Freak Out"
(http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/10/30/peet_s_buys_intelligentsia_stumptown_why_third_wave_coffee_consolidation.html). Slate.
22. "Peet's Coffee & Tea buys majority stake in Intelligentsia Coffee" (http://fortune.com/2015/10/30/peets-coffee-stake-intelligentsia/). Fortune.
23. "Bay Area's Peet's Coffee heads east for expansion" (http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/12/09/bay-areas-peets-coffee-heads-east-for-expansion/). East Bay Times.
24. "Peet's Opens Flagship Roastery Cafe in Shanghai, China" (https://dailycoffeenews.com/2017/11/14/peets-opens-flagship-roastery-cafe-in-shanghai-china/). Daily Coffee
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25. "Peet's Coupon" (http://www.eatdrinkdeals.com/2014/10/peets-coffee-coupon/). Eat Drink Deals. October 1, 2014.
26. "Store Locator" (https://www.peets.com/store-locator/). www.peets.com. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
27. "Peet's Opens Flagship Roastery Cafe in Shanghai, China" (https://dailycoffeenews.com/2017/11/14/peets-opens-flagship-roastery-cafe-in-shanghai-china/). Daily Coffee
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28. "Peet's Coffee & Tea abruptly shutters stores in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania" (https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/12/peets-coffee-tea-closures-
starbucks-deflation-ohio.html). San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved 2018-12-19.
29. Duggan, Tara (December 9, 2016). "Peet's Coffee to expand with huge Virginia roaster" (http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Peet-s-Coffee-to-expand-with-huge-
Virginia-10784374.php). SF Gate.
30. Francisco, San (March 31, 2008). "Peet's names BART stations getting coffee shops" (http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/03/31/daily5.html?
ana=from_rss).
31. "Peet's Coffee & Tea, Inc. Announces New Licensing and Supply Agreement with Stanford University's Residential & Dining Enterprises".
(http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20030922005304/en/Peets-Coffee-Tea-Announces-Licensing-Supply-Agreement), Business Wire, September 22, 2003
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(http://www.thebayareapress.com/articles_peets.html) on December 23, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
33. Pereira, Alyssa. "With grant from Peet's, UC Davis will launch research center for coffee" (http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/With-grant-from-Peet-s-Coffee-UC-Davis-
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35. Sciacca, Annie (April 12, 2017). "UC Berkeley, Peet's Coffee team up to boost student programs" (http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/12/uc-berkeley-peets-coffee-
team-up-to-boost-student-programs/). The Mercury News.
36. "Peet's Coffee enters all-day breakfast competition" (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-peets-coffee-warm-breakfast-0921-biz-20150918-story.html). Chicago
Tribune.
37. "Now, Peet's Coffee is Jumping on the Cold Brew Craze" (http://fortune.com/2016/07/25/peets-coffee-cold-brew/). Fortune.
38. "Peet's Launches Bottled Almond Milk Cold Brew" (http://vegnews.com/articles/page.do?pageId=9429&catId=1). VegNews.
39. "Peet's Coffee Introduces 'Slow Bar' at New D.C. Store" (https://www.eater.com/2016/12/21/14039054/peets-coffee-dc-third-wave-shop-east-coast-roastery). Eater.
40. Jessica Wohl (September 2, 2014). "Peet's Coffee taking on Starbucks in Chicago push" (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-peets-chicago-0902-biz-20140829-
story.html#page=1). Chicago Tribune.
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44. Sheryl Garratt (8 September 2002). "Wake up and smell the money. Cappuccino, frappucino, skinny latte, ..."
(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/08/fairtrade.ethicalliving) The Observer.

External links
◾ Official website (http://www.peets.com/)

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