Green Mountain Coffee Grows with Van Houtte Acquisition

Green Mountain Coffee is one of those success stories that keeps the dreams of small business owners alive. The company started as a small coffee cafe in Waitsfield, Vermont in 1981. Twelve years later, Green Mountain went public and it has been on an upward spiral ever since, racking up double digit net sales growth for the last thirty consecutive quarters. Still, the company has been true to its roots, maintaining its corporate headquarters in America's "green mountain state."

Green Mountain Coffee is a well-known brand in its own right, yet it owns other coffee brands as well: Newman's Own Organics coffee, Seattle coffee roaster Tully's, California's Diedrich, and the Canadian brand Timothy's. Green Mountain also acquired Keurig in 2006, renowned as a pioneer in gourmet single-cup (known as "K-cup") coffee brewing systems, after it became the first coffee roaster to enter the single cup business.

Now Green Mountain has added to its impressive brand list with the acquisition of Montreal-based coffee maker Van Houtte for an eye-opening $890 million.

Van Houtte has been roasting coffee since 1919 and maintains the largest coffee services network in North America, also operating about 70 cafes in the province of Quebec. With the acquisition, Green Mountain gains access to more strong brands, particularly in the single-cup market, including Bigelow and Wolfgang Puck.

Scott McCreary, president of Green Mountain's specialty coffee business unit, reports that it is the single cup business that has fueled the company's growth. "This year our K-cup growth will be over 70 percent," he says.