From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Caribou Coffee Company
Company type Private [1]
IndustryRetail coffee and tea
FoundedDecember 14, 1992; 31 years ago (1992-12-14)
Edina, Minnesota, United States
Headquarters Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, U.S.,
Key people
John Butcher, President & CEO
Number of employees
7,000+ [3]
Parent JAB Holding Company
Website www.cariboucoffee.com

Caribou Coffee Company is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was founded in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. As of May 2015, the company operates 603 locations worldwide. [3] It is headquartered in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Background

Caribou Coffee founder John Puckett was working as a management consultant for Boston-based firm Bain & Company, helping develop ideas and strategies for other companies, when he decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur. After a trip to Denali National Park in Alaska, he and his wife, Kim, decided to raise money and start a coffee company. His wife stayed with a job at General Motors while John moved to Minnesota to find the first site and put together financing. [4] [5] [6]

The initial concept for Caribou was a five-day-a-week schedule aimed at downtown office workers, mimicking what worked in Boston. Puckett signed a lease for the first location to be in the large Pillsbury Center office building. However, soon afterward the building's landlord decided not to sign the lease, because another of the building's retail tenants had exclusive rights to selling coffee in the building and had threatened to sue them. As a result, the financing for the store fell through because it was dependent on that specific site. Puckett opted to start looking for an available location in the suburbs, and the first Caribou Coffee shop was started in Edina, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, in December 1992. [4]

In 2003, Michael J. Coles was named CEO. [7]

On September 29, 2005, Caribou launched its IPO listed on NASDAQ under CBOU. CEO Coles recalls: "Two years after I took over, we expanded to 337 stores in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. In less than three years, Caribou went from a company with negative sales growth to a public company listed on NASDAQ." [8]

In 2006, Arcapita (formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank) was Caribou Coffee's majority shareholder. [9] In 2002, Yusuf al-Qaradawi's involvement [10] with the bank led to a protest of Caribou Coffee. [11] [12] That same year al-Qaradawi stepped down as chairman of the bank's Sharia Board. [13]

As of 2009, Caribou employed more than 6,000 people.

In December 2012, the company was taken private in a $340 million deal by German equity company JAB Holding Company. [14] [15] Following the merger, it was stated that Caribou Coffee would continue to be operated as an independent company with its own brand, management team and growth strategy, and that Caribou would continue to be based in Minneapolis. [16]

In May 2013, Caribou Coffee announced plans to close 80 stores in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois and Eastern Wisconsin, with 88 others in those locations to be converted to Peet's Coffee & Tea during 2013–2014. Caribou locations would remain open in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and ten international markets. [17] [18]

Caribou Coffee has 282 franchised outlets across nine international markets, including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. [19]

In 2019, John Butcher replaced Sarah Spiegel as CEO. [20]

On August 5, 2021, Caribou announced that it had merged with Panera Bread and Einstein Bros. Bagels to form Panera Brands. [21] [22] After four years in private hands, on November 8, 2021, Panera Brands filed paperwork for an initial public offering of stock. [23]

Data breach

On December 20, 2018, the company notified its customers of a potential data breach that they discovered in late November of that year. The breach also affected other companies owned by JAB Holding Company, namely Bruegger's and Einstein Bros. Bagels, [24] and included the release of credit card numbers and CVV codes. [25]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Caribou Coffee to close or rebrand 168 stores - CNN". 8 April 2013.
  2. ^ "Company Profile for Caribou Coffee Co Inc (CBOU)". Retrieved 2008-10-22.
  3. ^ a b "Company Information". cariboucoffee.com. Archived from the original on 2008-03-02. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
  4. ^ a b John Vomhof Jr., Caribou founder: Knowing when to leave the corporate world and go into business for yourself, Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, July 5, 2013, accessed July 8, 2013.
  5. ^ Chamis, Eleni (April 3, 2000). "A new cup o' joe". Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  6. ^ Lambrecht, Claire (November 26, 2012). "Caribou Coffee pioneer swaps espresso for pizza". ZDNet. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  7. ^ "Michael Coles named CEO of Caribou Coffee, expansion planned". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2021-02-15.
  8. ^ Coles, Michael Joseph (2018). Time to get tough : how cookies, coffee, and a crash led to success in business and life. Catherine M. Lewis, Jim Kennedy. Athens, Georgia. ISBN  978-0-8203-5462-0. OCLC  1030909455.{{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link)
  9. ^ Caribou Coffee's majority stakeholder Arcapita's website displaying all US investments including Tensar, Cypress
  10. ^ Annual Report 2000 Archived October 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Islamic bank is majority owner of the Caribou Coffee chain. Snopes reports on startup problems and funding sources.
  12. ^ Will Caribou's Shari'ah Affect Shares?. Communications, Southland Log Homes, Church's Chicken, Loehmann's, Cirrus Design, and many others.
  13. ^ Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi: Theologian of Terror - Affiliations Archived 2006-10-16 at the Wayback Machine, Anti-Defamation League, August 1, 2005
  14. ^ "Coffee meets bagels: Caribou Coffee to open inside Einstein Bros. Bagels". 19 July 2018.
  15. ^ Kavanagh, Jim (8 April 2013). "Caribou Coffee to close or rebrand 168 stores". CNN. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  16. ^ "Caribou Coffee sold for $340 million to owner of Peet's Coffee - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal". Archived from the original on 2012-12-19.
  17. ^ Shirlington Caribou Coffee to Become Peet's Coffee, West End Alexandria Patch, May 7, 2013
  18. ^ "Peet's, Caribou owner to buy former Sara Lee coffee business". Chicago Business Journal. Apr 12, 2013. Retrieved Apr 15, 2013.
  19. ^ Portal, World Coffee (2022-11-16). "Caribou Coffee debuts first US franchised store". World Coffee Portal. Retrieved 2023-01-22.
  20. ^ www.bizjournals.com https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2019/01/18/caribou-coffee-names-john-butcher-new-ceo.html. Retrieved 2022-06-02. {{ cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= ( help)
  21. ^ "Caribou Coffee launches U.S. franchising program". 16 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  22. ^ Ruddy, Edward (5 August 2021). "Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels Unite as Panera Brands, Creating a Best-in-Class, Market Leading Fast Casual Platform". www.businesswire.com. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  23. ^ DEE-ANN DURBIN. "Panera Bread — with its Caribou Coffee unit — returning to markets with upcoming IPO". Star Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  24. ^ "Caribou, Bruegger's notify customers of possible data breach". KARE 11. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.
  25. ^ "Caribou Coffee, Bruegger's Bagels say data breach exposed credit card info". Twin Cities Pioneer Press. 21 December 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2018.

External links