A private European holding company that quietly owns your morning coffee.
Every brand below is owned by JAB Holding Company. Highlighted rows are brands that specifically market themselves as natural, organic, wellness, or independent — the ones most likely to obscure their parent company.
These are documented cases where branding, packaging, or public messaging obscures the ownership relationship or ingredient reality.
Stumptown and Intelligentsia were two of the defining names of the third-wave coffee movement — the idea that coffee was an artisanal product deserving traceability, direct trade relationships, and transparent sourcing. JAB acquired both in 2015. Neither brand displays any JAB branding. Both continue to operate independent websites, maintain direct trade messaging, and position themselves as alternatives to corporate coffee. The irony is structural: they are now subsidiaries of a company that also owns Keurig — the disposable-pod coffee platform that specialty coffee professionals have spent a decade criticizing.
Panera spent years positioning itself as 'clean' food — no artificial preservatives, colors, or sweeteners. Its 'No No List' was a marketing centerpiece. What the brand didn't prominently communicate: many of its 'clean' soups and sandwiches contained sodium levels exceeding 1,500mg per serving — close to an entire day's recommended intake. The 'clean' framing focused on ingredient type, not quantity. Panera was acquired by JAB for $7.5 billion in 2017.
Keurig's original K-Cup design included a DRM-style lock to prevent third-party pods from working in their machines. The Keurig 2.0 (2014) added an optical reader that rejected unlicensed pods. Consumer backlash was significant; the feature was eventually removed. But the episode was illustrative: a platform sold on 'choice' and 'convenience' was simultaneously being engineered for lock-in. JAB's merger of Keurig and Dr Pepper in 2018 created a combined beverage platform valued at ~$20B.
Post-acquisition formula changes are rarely announced. They appear in the ingredient panel — in 7pt type — long after the acquisition press release has been forgotten.
The original Stumptown cold brew was made from single-origin Holler Mountain blend, brewed in Portland. Post-JAB scaling, the retail cold brew moved to a multi-origin blend with standardized extraction parameters. The packaging retained 'Portland, OR' and the hand-drawn aesthetic but sourcing became co-manufacturer dependent.
Panera completed its 'clean' reformulation with fanfare — removing 150+ artificial ingredients. What was less publicized: several reformulated soups increased sodium content to compensate for flavor lost when removing artificial enhancers. The clean ingredients story ran; the sodium increase did not.
Peet's RTD (ready-to-drink) line expanded with Keurig Dr Pepper distribution. The retail bottles shifted from cold-brew to nitrogen-infused concentrate blends to reduce cost. Premium origin language was maintained on packaging; the production method change was not communicated.