Nestlé wants to sell coffee chain Blue Bottle

Nestlé is considering selling Blue Bottle Coffee. Together with Morgan Stanley, the FMCG giant is exploring options for the American coffee brand, as new CEO Philipp Navratil wants to reorganize the portfolio.

Possibly at a loss

A simpler portfolio, with only scalable, global coffee brands. With that in mind, Navratil would like to divest Blue Coffee, Reuters reports. Nestlé is exploring various strategic options, including the sale of the Blue Bottle chain. The group acquired a majority stake in Blue Bottle in 2017, when it was valued at approximately 700 million US dollars (602 million euros). The intended sale would be below that valuation.

Blue Bottle has around 100 coffee bars in the United States and mainly Asia, and also sells its own brand products, such as ground coffee and mugs. One of the scenarios is that the cafés will be sold off, while Nestlé retains the intellectual property rights to continue selling the products.

If the sale goes ahead, it will change Nestlé’s coffee strategy: Blue Bottle was previously seen as a way to capitalize on the “specialty coffee” trend alongside its heavyweights Nescafé and Nespresso, but now the group no longer wants to invest in niches.