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Caribou Coffee Company is an American
coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...
company and
coffeehouse chain This list of notable coffeehouse chains catalogues the spread and Market share, markets share of coffeehouses world-wide. This list excludes the many companies which operate coffeeshops within retail establishments, notably bookstores and departme ...
. It was founded in
Edina EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group. Services EDINA front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at the point of use for ...
, Minnesota, in 1992. As of May 2015, the company operates 603 locations worldwide. It is headquartered in
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Brooklyn Center is a first-ring suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. In 1911, the area became a village formed from parts of Brooklyn Township and Crystal Lake Township. I ...
.


Background

Caribou Coffee founder John Puckett was working as a
management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants ...
for
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
-based firm
Bain & Company Bain & Company is an American management consulting company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm provides advice to public, private, and non-profit organizations. One of the Big Three management consultancies, Bain & Company was fou ...
, helping develop ideas and strategies for other companies, when he decided he wanted to become an entrepreneur. After a trip to
Denali National Park Denali National Park and Preserve, formerly known as Mount McKinley National Park, is an American national park and preserve located in Interior Alaska, centered on Denali, the highest mountain in North America. The park and contiguous preserve e ...
in
Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, he and his wife, Kim, decided to raise money and start a coffee company. His wife stayed with a job at
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
while John moved to
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
to find the first site and put together financing.John Vomhof Jr.
Caribou founder: Knowing when to leave the corporate world and go into business for yourself
''Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal'', July 5, 2013, accessed July 8, 2013.
The initial concept for Caribou was a five-day-a-week schedule aimed at downtown office workers, mimicking what worked in Boston. Puckett signed a lease for the first location to be in the large Pillsbury Center office building. However, soon afterward the building's landlord decided not to sign the lease, because another of the building's retail tenants had exclusive rights to selling coffee in the building and had threatened to sue them. As a result, the financing for the store fell through because it was dependent on that specific site. Puckett opted to start looking for an available location in the suburbs, and the first Caribou Coffee shop was started in
Edina, Minnesota Edina ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 53,494 at the 2020 census, making it the 18th most populous city in Minnesota. Edina began as a small farming and mil ...
, a suburb of
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
, in December 1992. In 2003, Michael J. Coles was named CEO. On September 29, 2005, Caribou launched its
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
listed on
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
under CBOU. CEO Coles recalls: "Two years after I took over, we expanded to 337 stores in fourteen states and the District of Columbia. In less than three years, Caribou went from a company with negative sales growth to a public company listed on NASDAQ." In 2006,
Arcapita Arcapita founded in 1997, is an asset management firm. Headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, Arcapita also operates from its offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. The firm serves a group of investors in the Mi ...
(formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank) was Caribou Coffee's majority shareholder. In 2002, Yusuf al-Qaradawi's involvement with the bank led to a protest of Caribou Coffee. That same year al-Qaradawi stepped down as chairman of the bank's
Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
Board. As of 2009, Caribou employed more than 6,000 people. In December 2012, the company was taken private in a $340 million deal by German equity company
JAB Holding Company JAB Holding Company ("JAB" or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast foo ...
. Following the merger, it was stated that Caribou Coffee would continue to be operated as an independent company with its own brand, management team and growth strategy, and that Caribou would continue to be based in Minneapolis. In May 2013, Caribou Coffee announced plans to close 80 stores in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois and Eastern Wisconsin, with 88 others in those locations to be converted to
Peet's Coffee & Tea Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by JAB Holding Company via JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to its darker roasted ...
during 2013–2014. Caribou locations would remain open in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
,
Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
,
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and ten international markets. In 2019, John Butcher replaced Sarah Spiegel as CEO. On August 5, 2021, Caribou announced that it had merged with
Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri. The company operates as Saint Louis ...
and Einstein Bros. Bagels to form Panera Brands. After four years in private hands, on November 8, 2021, Panera Brands filed paperwork for an initial public offering of stock.


Data breach

On December 20, 2018, the company notified its customers of a potential data breach that they discovered in late November of that year. The breach also affected other companies owned by JAB Holding Company, namely
Bruegger's Bruegger's Enterprises, Inc. is a restaurant operator and subsidiary of the Luxembourg-based company JAB Holding Company. It and its wholly owned subsidiary Threecaf Brands Canada, Inc., are franchisers and operators of Bruegger's bakery-cafés ...
and Einstein Bros. Bagels, and included the release of credit card numbers and CVV codes.


See also

*
List of coffeehouse chains This list of notable coffeehouse chains catalogues the spread and markets share of coffeehouses world-wide. This list excludes the many companies which operate coffeeshops within retail establishments, notably bookstores and department stores, or ...


References


External links

* {{Keurig Dr Pepper brands Coffeehouses and cafés in the United States Companies based in Minneapolis American companies established in 1992 Food and drink companies established in 1992 Restaurants established in 1992 1992 establishments in Minnesota Coffee brands Restaurant franchises 2013 mergers and acquisitions Data breaches in the United States