{"id":1790,"date":"2019-02-26T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T16:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2019\/02\/26\/uks-department-of-coffee-social-affairs-acquires-baker-spice\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T06:00:16","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T16:00:16","slug":"uks-department-of-coffee-social-affairs-acquires-baker-spice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2019\/02\/26\/uks-department-of-coffee-social-affairs-acquires-baker-spice\/","title":{"rendered":"UK\u2019s Department Of Coffee & Social Affairs Acquires Baker & Spice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mergers and acquisitions are the seasonal latte of the month in the specialty coffee world right now. Taking inspiration from the tech and telecom industries, where this sort of thing is the norm, conglomerates and holding companies are collecting coffee brands like baseball cards. And it\u2019s not only happening in the US\u2014as JAB<\/a> and Nestl\u00e9<\/a> battle it out for the right to take on Starbucks<\/a>, in the United Kingdom a growing specialty coffee chain just quietly added another business to its ranks.<\/p>\n

Since it began in London way back in 2010, Department of Coffee & Social Affairs<\/a> has grown to encompass 20 of its own cafes alongside a ream of other businesses across the country, and even expanded to the US in 2017. Per The Independent<\/a>, their latest acquisition is Baker & Spice<\/a>, an upscale bakery and deli with five locations in London, purchased from the bankrupt cake chain Patisserie Valerie for \u00a32.5 million.<\/p>\n

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(From our 2015 feature “London: At The New Department Of Coffee & Social Affairs In Spitalfields Market”<\/a> by Audrey Fiodorenko)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With Baker & Spice, Department of Coffee is adding to its roster of independent brands around England\u2014in December, it completed the purchase of the London-based tea and cake shop Bea\u2019s of Bloomsbury<\/a>, and earlier in the year acquired two Bristol coffee shops, The Crazy Fox<\/a> and Tradewind Espresso<\/a>. Rather than bring these companies underneath its own brand, Department of Coffee has allowed each to remain individual, at least in name, while it focuses its attention on expanding its own cafes across the country and into the US.<\/p>\n

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DCSA sandwich board. Photo by Audrey Fiodorenko<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The main difference between the spate of glitzy takeovers in the US and Department of Coffee\u2019s smaller-scale expansion is that the latter has happened, for the most part, under the radar. It might point to a future where, instead of coffee companies expanding fast in hopes of being snapped up by a venture capital firm, smaller regional brands combine for long-term stability.<\/p>\n

Fionn Pooler is a journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the publisher of\u00a0The Pourover<\/a>.\u00a0Read more Fionn Pooler on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Illustration by Zac Cadwalader.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post UK’s Department Of Coffee & Social Affairs Acquires Baker & Spice<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mergers and acquisitions are the seasonal latte of the month in the specialty coffee world right now. Taking inspiration from the tech and telecom industries, where this sort of thing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}