Caribou wants more carbs with its coffee.
Caribou Coffee is buying Bruegger's Bagels, the latest twist for a rapidly expanding corporate family that already includes the Einstein Bros. bagel chain.
The owner of Bruegger's, Dallas-based Le Duff America, announced Thursday morning it agreed to sell the 270-unit chain to Brooklyn Center-based Caribou. Terms weren't disclosed.
It's the latest deal by JAB Holding Co., the Luxembourg-based firm that owns Caribou, Einstein and a number of other brands familiar to American diners and coffee lovers. Caribou and Einstein moved closer to one another last month following the appointment of a single chief executive over both companies.
Not counting this deal, JAB has spent more than $40 billion acquiring carb and coffee purveyors such as Panera Bread, Peet's Coffee and Tea, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Intelligentsia Coffee and the retail brand Keurig Green Mountain.
JAB's most recent purchase in April of St. Louis-based Panera, which serves soups, salads, sandwiches and baked goods at about 2,000 locations, was worth $7.5 billion, including debt. Last year, JAB paid $1.35 billion for Krispy Kreme, a classic American doughnut chain.
The news throws into the air the future of retail partnerships and branding between Caribou and the two bagel chains, Einstein and Bruegger's. Several years ago, Caribou began experimenting with Bruegger's on some co-branded retail spots, but that effort ended once JAB bought Einstein Noah, which has just over 800 locations.
Since then, Caribou and Lakewood, Colo.-based Einstein created a co-branded concept called "Coffee & Bagels," which has more than a dozen Twin Cities outlets.
