Nestle Sees $250 Million Boost for Starbucks Products
Nestle Sees $250 Million Sales Boost for Starbucks Products
(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA expects to get about a quarter of a billion dollars in extra revenue from Starbucks-branded products this year after it began selling items including Nespresso-compatible capsules under a partnership with the U.S. coffee giant.
Starbucks-branded merchandise will add about 250 million Swiss francs ($252 million) to sales this year, a spokesman said Tuesday in response to questions. Last year, Nestle paid more than $7 billion for licenses to use the Starbucks brand for products sold in grocery stores.
The move has given a boost to Nespresso, where growth has eased due to competition from cheap imitation pods. Nestle has been hesitant to offer its coffee brand’s capsules in supermarkets because it prefers to keep control over how they’re sold. However, the Swiss company has been using the Starbucks tie-up as an avenue into grocery aisles.
The alliance could help Nespresso return to annual revenue growth exceeding 10%, Patrice Bula, chairman of the brand, said in February. As part of the agreement, the world’s largest food company took over a $2 billion business that made Starbucks products for grocery stores.
Nestle plans to add 10 more markets next year for the products, including Argentina, Colombia and Panama, which would bring the total to 50. The company will introduce Starbucks-branded soluble coffee next year and expand sales of the broader range to offices and hotels.
To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John Lauerman
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