Caribou Coffee in massive closure and rebranding move
Caribou Coffee announced plans to shed a significant part of its underperforming locations and rebrand many others. The Minneapolis-based coffee company will effectively pull out of Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia by closing 80 stores over the coming days. Further 88 locations will be converted to Peet's Coffee & Tea brand in the next 12 to 18 months. After the downsizing exercise, Caribou Coffee is expected to have 468 locations in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Western Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, Colorado and 10 international markets. The company was taken private this year in a $340 million deal with Joh. A. Benckiser, a German investment firm that purchased Peet's Tea & Coffee for $947 million last year.