NEW YORK (AP) — Keurig Dr Pepper will buy the owner of Peet’s Coffee in an $18 billion (15.7 billion euro) deal, then break itself in two, with one company selling coffee and the other selling cold beverages like Snapple, Dr Pepper, 7UP and energy drinks.
The agreement anounced Monday will essentially unwind the 2018 merger of Keurig and Dr. Pepper and it arrives at a time when consumers are pulling back and the trade wars under President Donald Trump threaten to send coffee prices soaring.
Trump imposed a 50% tariff this summer on most imports from Brazil — the world’s leading coffee producer — for its investigation of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.
Yet Keurig Dr Pepper sees both coffee and cold beverages as areas of growth that would be better navigated by indepen