Coffee Nomad

The first ever Peet’s coffee shop, in California (courtesy of Flickr):

The deal has been finalized: Peet’s Coffee will buy Diedrich Coffee for $212 Million.  Thanks to this acquisition, Peet’s will now have a sizable share in the single cup-brewer market (Diedrich makes K-Cups for Keurig).

Diedrich is a coffee-roasting company primarily.  Diedrich operates a small network of franchise coffee houses, which go by different names (I gather) including Gloria Jean’s (a coffee shop commonly found in malls throughout the country).

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Carl Diedrich, the son of Charlotte Diedrich (the founder of Diedrich Coffee) took on his mother’s devotion for the company and also helped to bring Italian style coffee preparation stateside.

As a side note:  I’ve seen some coffee roasters with “Diedrich” printed on the side — but I’m pretty sure that is a different company.  Someone can correct me if I’m wrong about this, but there is no mention of the other company on the two websites Diedrich.com and DiedrichRoasters.com.

Peet’s is a specialty roaster based out of California, making most of their income from retail sales.  There are about 200 coffee shops bearing the name “Peet’s” at this point.

The founders of Peet’s were close associates with the founders of Starbucks.  Starbucks chains actually bought their coffee directly from Peet’s during their first year of business in 1971.  Since then Starbucks has focused more on the coffee-bar scene while Peet’s has concentrated on selling via retail.

Peet’s is one of my favorite retail coffees.  However, because I am cheap and other comparable brands cost a few dollars less, I tend to go with the comparable brands.