JAB Holding Company S.à r.l. (JAB or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of

consumer goods A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike an intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good. W ...

, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast food, among others.

Overview

As of 2015, JAB's portfolio included a minority stake in the consumer products company

Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, currently branded as Reckitt, formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition prod ...

, and majority stakes in

Coty Coty Inc. is an American multinational beauty company founded in 1904 by François Coty. With its subsidiaries, it develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes fragrances, cosmetics, skin care, nail care, and both professional and retail hai ...

Peet's Coffee & Tea Peet's Coffee is a San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty coffee roaster and retailer owned by Dutch multinational coffee and tea company JDE Peet's. Founded in 1966 by Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California, Peet's introduced the United States to ...

Caribou Coffee Caribou Coffee Company is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was founded in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. As of September 2023, the company operates over 750 locations worldwide. It is headquartered in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. ...

Company,

Jacobs Douwe Egberts JDE Peet's N.V. is an American-Dutch multinational coffee and tea company headquartered in Amsterdam. The company owns over 50 beverage brands, mostly of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. It was formed in 2015 following the merger of the coffee di ...

(JDE), Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, and

Jimmy Choo Jimmy Choo Yeang Keat (born 15 November 1948) is a Malaysian fashion designer based in the United Kingdom. He co-founded Jimmy Choo Ltd, which became known for its handmade women's shoes. Early life Choo was born in 1948 in the Crown Colony ...

. As of that date, JAB also owned Bally,

Belstaff Belstaff is a clothing brand owned by Ineos. The company was founded in 1924 by Eli Belovitch and his son-in-law Harry Grosberg in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The name Belstaff is a combination of Eli's surname and his Staffordshire ...

, Zagliani, Espresso House, and Baresso Coffee. In May 2014, D.E Master Blenders 1753 announced to acquire a majority stake in Mondelez's coffee business (outside of France) to form Jacobs Douwe Egberts, it would combine brands Jacobs, Carte Noire, Gevalia, Kenco, Tassimo and Millicano from

Mondelez International Mondelēz International, Inc. ( ) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food industry, food, Holding company, holding, drink industry, beverage and snack food company based in Chicago. Mondelez has an annual rev ...

and Douwe Egberts, L'OR, Pilao and Senseo from D.E Master Blenders. In August 2014, under the Peet's Coffee & Tea brand, JAB acquired

Mighty Leaf Tea The Mighty Leaf Tea Company is a specialty tea manufacturer and distributor based in Emeryville, California. It was founded in 1996 by Gary Shinner and Jill Portman.

, a specialty

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

retailer based in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

Area. In October 2015, Peet's Coffee & Tea acquired Portland, Oregon's Stumptown Coffee in a deal whose terms were not disclosed, and in the same month acquired a majority stake in Chicago-based

Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Intelligentsia Coffee is an American coffee roasting company and retailer based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1995 by Doug Zell and Emily Mange, Intelligentsia is considered a major representative of third-wave coffee in the United States. I ...

. In March 2016, JAB and other investors acquired

Keurig Green Mountain Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. ( ), formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1979–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and F ...

for $13.9 billion. In May 2016, JAB-controlled JAB Beech reached an agreement to acquire US doughnut shop operator

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

for $1.35 billion. In April 2017, JAB reached an agreement to buy U.S.-based

Panera Bread Panera Bread is an American multinational chain 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 Fenton, Missouri. The chain operates as Saint Louis ...

, a

fast casual A fast casual restaurant, found primarily in the United States and Canada, is a restaurant that does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is a ...

bakery-café chain, for $7.5 billion. Also in April, JAB was reported to be stepping back from investment in luxury goods, with reported plans to sell its stakes in the designer shoe and clothing brands

, Bally, and

. In August 2017, JAB announced the acquisition of Bruegger's Bagels. On 29 January 2018, Keurig Green Mountain announced it was acquiring

Dr Pepper Snapple Group Dr Pepper Snapple Group was an American multinational soft drink company based in Plano, Texas. Since July 2018, it is a business unit of the publicly-traded conglomerate Keurig Dr Pepper. Formerly Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, part of ...

, with JAB owning 87% of the combined companies. As of February 2018, JAB retained ownership of a minority stake in Bally after sale of its majority stake to the Chinese conglomerate

Shandong Ruyi Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Co., Ltd is a Chinese textiles and clothing company. Founded in 1972 in Jining, China, it is a subsidiary of Jining Ruyi Investment Co., Ltd. As of 2017, Ruyi Group was the largest textile manufacturer in China. It ...

. JAB's beverage empire was described in 2018 as having been built on "buy now, pay later" ( extended terms of trade) principles; some coffee roasters owned by JAB are reported to require up to 300 days of financing from their suppliers. In February 2019 the company spent $1.2 billion to acquire Compassion-First Pet Hospitals then purchased National Veterinary Associates four months later. The combined revenue of Compassion-First and National Veterinary Associates is expected to be $3 billion in 2020, placing it among the three largest players in the industry barely 12 months after the firm's first takeover. In August 2024, JAB sold Swiss leather goods brand Bally to California-based private equity firm

Regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

, which owns and operates fashion brands such as

Escada Escada SE is a luxury women's designer clothing company headquartered in Aschheim, Germany. The company is owned by Regent, L.P., an international private equity firm led by investor Michael Reinstein. The company was founded in 1978 by desi ...

and

Club Monaco Club Monaco is a Canadian-founded luxury casual clothing retailer owned by Regent, L.P. With more than 140 locations worldwide, the retailer has locations in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea, Mainland China, the ...

, for an undisclosed sum.

Ownership

Owned by Germany's Reimann family, 90% of JAB belongs to four of the nine adopted children of the late Albert Reimann Jr. (1898–1984). They trace their wealth to chemist Ludwig Reimann, who, in 1828, joined with

Johann Adam Benckiser Johann, typically a male given name, is the German language, German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin language, Latin form of the Greek language, Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew language, Hebrew name ''Johanan (name ...

(founder of the namesake chemical company). Reimann married one of Benckiser's daughters and ended up owning the business. Great-grandson Albert Reimann Jr. took over after his father died in 1952 and added consumer goods. Initially, each of the nine children had inherited 11.1% ownership in JAB upon Albert's death in 1984. In the following years, five of the heirs sold their stakes to the other four: Matthias Reimann-Andersen, Renate Reimann-Haas, Stefan Reimann-Andersen and Wolfgang Reimann. As of January 2015, each of the four owns about $3.8 billion in JAB shares. The primary shareholder of JAB, as listed in its 2016 Consolidated Financial Statements, is Austrian-domiciled company Agnaten SE. Agnaten is listed, by PrivCo, as a subsidiary of Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH, the investment vehicle of the Reimann family.

Founder's support of Hitler and Nazism

In March 2019, a German newspaper revealed that Albert Reimann Sr., and his son Albert Reimann Jr., were enthusiastic supporters of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

well before they took power, and profited from

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

, both in their industrial chemicals company in southern Germany and in their own home. The revelations sparked ethical questions about consumer support for companies that owe their success in part to the historical use of forced labor. Two months later, several of the Reimanns revealed to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' that their mother, Emilie Landecker, Albert Jr.'s mistress, baptized as a Catholic like her mother, was the daughter of Alfred Landecker, a Jewish man deported to the

Izbica Ghetto The Izbica ghetto was a Jewish ghetto created by Nazi Germany in Izbica in occupied Poland during World War II, serving as a transfer point for deportation of Jews from Poland, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia to Bełżec and Sobibór exterm ...

in 1942. His ultimate fate is unknown although many Jews sent to Izbica were held there pending transport to the Belzec and

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...

s. They have renamed the family foundation after him and doubled its budget to €25 million (US$28.2 million), to fund projects that honour the victims of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

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Overview

Ownership

Founder's support of Hitler and Nazism

See also

References