Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and CEO, said: “The acquisition of Evolution Fresh supports our growth strategy to innovate with new products, enter new categories, and expand into new channels of distribution.
“Our intent is to build a national Health and Wellness brand leveraging our scale, resources and premium product expertise. Bringing Evolution Fresh into the Starbucks family marks an important step forward in this pursuit. Over the last year we have looked comprehensively at possible opportunities and chose Evolution Fresh because it stood above anything else in terms of premium quality, nutrition and potential for growth.”
Over time, Starbucks plans to expand beyond Evolution Fresh’s current distribution into additional channels, and begin to make Evolution Fresh products available in Starbucks company owned retail stores providing nationwide presence and awareness. In order to achieve this, Starbucks will look to make investments over time for upgrades to existing facilities as well as expansion needed for the broadened distribution of the product and for future growth plans for the brand, the company said.
Additionally, to showcase Starbucks growing portfolio, and as consumers become increasingly aware of Evolution Fresh, the company plans to introduce a new health and wellness retail concept which will redefine the super premium juice category and experience for consumers, the company said.
The retail concept is planned for early to mid 2012. Starbucks acquired Evolution Fresh for $30m in cash.
Source: Starbucks Coffee Company
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