Westrock Buys S&D
Westrock buys S&D.
Westrock Coffee Company buys S&D Coffee and Tea from Cott Corporation for $405 million.
Founded in 1927 to offer fresh roasted coffee and tea to local and regional grocery stores, S&D is now a top custom coffee roaster and the biggest blender of iced teas for foodservice and convenience stores in the United States. It's also a leader in the extracts and ingredients category. The firm serves 110,000 customers through national distribution and direct store delivery in the restaurant industry and convenience stores. Customers include McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Circle K.
Founded in 2009 by Scott Ford, his father Joe, and other private investors, Westrock Coffee is a farmer-focused, fully integrated firm providing coffee sourcing and financing, supply chain management, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to customers worldwide. Through its US-based roasting operations, the company roasts, grinds, packages, and delivers branded and private label coffee in bags, fractional packs, and single-serve cups. Westrock Coffee serves retailers like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and CVS outlets, with a lesser market in hospitality, providing coffee to marquee hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
Westrock and S&D will continue to work under their respective brand names. Westrock Coffee will stay headquartered in Arkansas, with its enlarged roasting and packaging plant in North Little Rock already earmarked for further expansion. The S&D organization in North Carolina will continue as a major center of operations, also with plans to continue expanding these facilities.
The new company will be the nation’s top integrated coffee firm, importing, exporting, roasting, grinding, processing, and packaging coffee from growers in 21 countries. All serving the needs of the retail, restaurant, convenience store, and hospitality industries. 1,700 employees will roast, grind, and package 220 million pounds of coffee a year. The firm will also be one of the biggest tea suppliers in the US and the top premium extract supplier to global foodservice and consumer product companies.
Scott Ford of Westrock said: ‘This strategic combination will create the nation’s premier coffee, tea, and extract supplier capable of serving the most complex and demanding customers across the country and around the world. We intend to use the scale of the new company to offer the most innovative beverage solutions with competitive pricing to our global clients while simultaneously providing a premium price to our farmer partners at origin. Our unmatched commitment to customer service, product quality, and our industry-leading sustainability and transparent sourcing practices will stay a cornerstone of our business. Our joint organization will seek to lead the industry with our sustainability program and to speed up developing a broad array of innovative products.
This is tremendous news for our company and validates the work we’ve been doing for our customers and the growers who support our business. This is great news for Little Rock down the road as we work with our new team members to expand our growth organically and through acquisitions. They are a much bigger company than we are and have the people and infrastructure in place to help build a strong company. We’ll expand our roasting plant and offices in North Little Rock and have plans to expand the facilities in North Carolina. Together, we’ll be the biggest and the best coffee provider in the nation.’
John Hinson of S&D said: ‘Participating in S&D’s growth and success during the past four decades has been incredible. We achieved industry leadership by innovating to serve our customers. We invested in job and career growth for employees and our community, and I look forward to working with Scott and the newly combined leadership team to see these achievements go even further. The highly complementary product and customer focus S&D brings to Westrock Coffee makes this a terrific event for our business, our employees, and our customers.
Westrock Coffee Company buys S&D Coffee and Tea from Cott Corporation for $405 million.
Founded in 1927 to offer fresh roasted coffee and tea to local and regional grocery stores, S&D is now a top custom coffee roaster and the biggest blender of iced teas for foodservice and convenience stores in the United States. It's also a leader in the extracts and ingredients category. The firm serves 110,000 customers through national distribution and direct store delivery in the restaurant industry and convenience stores. Customers include McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-A, and Circle K.
Founded in 2009 by Scott Ford, his father Joe, and other private investors, Westrock Coffee is a farmer-focused, fully integrated firm providing coffee sourcing and financing, supply chain management, roasting, packaging, and distribution services to customers worldwide. Through its US-based roasting operations, the company roasts, grinds, packages, and delivers branded and private label coffee in bags, fractional packs, and single-serve cups. Westrock Coffee serves retailers like Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and CVS outlets, with a lesser market in hospitality, providing coffee to marquee hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
Westrock and S&D will continue to work under their respective brand names. Westrock Coffee will stay headquartered in Arkansas, with its enlarged roasting and packaging plant in North Little Rock already earmarked for further expansion. The S&D organization in North Carolina will continue as a major center of operations, also with plans to continue expanding these facilities.
The new company will be the nation’s top integrated coffee firm, importing, exporting, roasting, grinding, processing, and packaging coffee from growers in 21 countries. All serving the needs of the retail, restaurant, convenience store, and hospitality industries. 1,700 employees will roast, grind, and package 220 million pounds of coffee a year. The firm will also be one of the biggest tea suppliers in the US and the top premium extract supplier to global foodservice and consumer product companies.
Scott Ford of Westrock said: ‘This strategic combination will create the nation’s premier coffee, tea, and extract supplier capable of serving the most complex and demanding customers across the country and around the world. We intend to use the scale of the new company to offer the most innovative beverage solutions with competitive pricing to our global clients while simultaneously providing a premium price to our farmer partners at origin. Our unmatched commitment to customer service, product quality, and our industry-leading sustainability and transparent sourcing practices will stay a cornerstone of our business. Our joint organization will seek to lead the industry with our sustainability program and to speed up developing a broad array of innovative products.
This is tremendous news for our company and validates the work we’ve been doing for our customers and the growers who support our business. This is great news for Little Rock down the road as we work with our new team members to expand our growth organically and through acquisitions. They are a much bigger company than we are and have the people and infrastructure in place to help build a strong company. We’ll expand our roasting plant and offices in North Little Rock and have plans to expand the facilities in North Carolina. Together, we’ll be the biggest and the best coffee provider in the nation.’
John Hinson of S&D said: ‘Participating in S&D’s growth and success during the past four decades has been incredible. We achieved industry leadership by innovating to serve our customers. We invested in job and career growth for employees and our community, and I look forward to working with Scott and the newly combined leadership team to see these achievements go even further. The highly complementary product and customer focus S&D brings to Westrock Coffee makes this a terrific event for our business, our employees, and our customers.
This is an exciting new direction for the business. Combining two significant coffee companies will open new opportunities and help us continue to offer the innovative products, quality, and service you have come to expect. The two companies share the same values around people and sustainability. There's no doubt in my mind that this is the best next step to helping us achieve our vision of being the world’s leading beverage innovator and solution provider.’
Tom Harrington of Cott said: ‘The S&D team is known for its dedication, hard work, passion for quality beverages, and first-class service to its customers. That commitment is clear to anyone who visits or works with them, and we are confident they will continue to thrive under its new ownership. This sale, along with the recent announcement of Cott's acquisition of Primo Water Corporation, positions Cott as a pure-play water solutions provider with financial metrics more in line with our water peers.’
Concurrent with the deal, BBH Capital Partners, a private equity strategy of Brown Brothers Harriman, will provide acquisition capital alongside Westrock Coffee's existing investors, including The Stephens Group.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Westrock Coffee.
BMO Capital Markets served as financial advisor to Cott. Drinker Biddle & Reath acted as legal advisor.
Tom Harrington of Cott said: ‘The S&D team is known for its dedication, hard work, passion for quality beverages, and first-class service to its customers. That commitment is clear to anyone who visits or works with them, and we are confident they will continue to thrive under its new ownership. This sale, along with the recent announcement of Cott's acquisition of Primo Water Corporation, positions Cott as a pure-play water solutions provider with financial metrics more in line with our water peers.’
Concurrent with the deal, BBH Capital Partners, a private equity strategy of Brown Brothers Harriman, will provide acquisition capital alongside Westrock Coffee's existing investors, including The Stephens Group.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal advisor to Westrock Coffee.
BMO Capital Markets served as financial advisor to Cott. Drinker Biddle & Reath acted as legal advisor.
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