Business & Tech

Equity Funds Buy Stake in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Westwood and Century City have five locations of the popular coffee franchise.

By City News Service

The parent company of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf announced today that three private equity funds have bought a stake in the 900- plus-store chain started in Brentwood in 1963.

Boston-based Advent International, Hong Kong-based CDIB Capital and Seoul-based Mirae Asset Private Equity bought a "significant" stake in privately held International Coffee & Tea LLC. The values of those investments were not disclosed.

The Sassoon family, led by brothers Sunny and Victor Sassoon, constituted the largest Coffee Bean shareholder and remains a significant one.

"This is an important and exciting development for our customers and team members and marks a new age of significance and expansion for The Coffee Bean," president and chief executive Mel Elias said. "The coffee sector continues to be very dynamic, led by strong international growth and significant strategic interest, which in turn provides added promise and opportunity. It is also a testament to our people, products, and strength of our brand, both domestically and internationally, in the coffee, and especially, tea category."     Advent International's Jeff Case said the "coffee and tea market is poised for continued growth, driven by rising coffee consumption globally and an expanding middle class in Asia and other growing economies throughout the world.

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"We believe this investment will serve to accelerate the brand's development and market share and we look forward to working with the management team to accomplish that growth," he said.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, based in Los Angeles, which is celebrating its 50th year in business, has franchised stores in 15 states and nearly 30 countries.

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