Peet's Coffee facts for kids
 |
|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Coffee shop |
| Founded | 1966 Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Founder | Alfred Peet (1920–2007) |
| Headquarters | Emeryville, California, U.S. |
|
Number of locations
|
200 (2021) |
|
Key people
|
|
| Products | Coffee beans, coffee beverages, teas, and food |
| Revenue | $983 million (FY 2019) |
|
Number of employees
|
5,000 |
| Parent | JDE Peet's (JAB Holding Company) (2012–present) |
| Subsidiaries | Stumptown Coffee Roasters Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea Mighty Leaf Tea |
Peet's Coffee is a well-known company that roasts and sells special coffee. It started in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The company is now part of a bigger Dutch company called JDE Peet's.
Peet's Coffee was founded in 1966 by a man named Alfred Peet in Berkeley, California. Alfred Peet helped introduce Americans to a darker roasted type of coffee called Arabica. This coffee was used in popular blends like French roast and for espresso drinks.
Today, Peet's sells fresh coffee beans, brewed coffee, espresso drinks, and even bottled cold brew coffee. You can find Peet's coffee in many places. It is sold in over 14,000 grocery stores across the United States. As of November 2021, Peet's had 200 stores in the United States.
Contents
The Story of Peet's Coffee
How Alfred Peet Started
Alfred Peet was born in the Netherlands in 1920. His father owned a business that sold and ground coffee beans. Alfred learned a lot about roasting and grinding coffee from his father.
In 1938, when he was 18, Alfred moved to London. He worked for a coffee and tea company there. He also spent time in New Zealand and Indonesia. In 1955, he moved to San Francisco and worked for a company that imported coffee and tea.
In 1966, Alfred Peet opened his first store in Berkeley, California. It was called "Peet's Coffee, Tea & Spices." The store was on Vine Street, close to the University of California, Berkeley. At first, he only sold coffee beans, not cups of coffee. He roasted his coffee beans by hand in small amounts.
Alfred Peet wanted to bring better coffee to America. He became known as "the grandfather of specialty coffee." His first store on Vine and Walnut streets is still open today.
Growing the Business
Alfred Peet sold his business in 1979 to Sal Bonavita. However, Alfred continued to work with the company. He helped buy coffee and gave advice until 1983.
In 1984, Jerry Baldwin bought Peet's four stores. Jerry Baldwin was one of the people who started Starbucks. In 1987, Baldwin and his partners sold Starbucks. They wanted to focus more on Peet's.
In 2001, Peet's Coffee and Tea Company became a public company. This meant its shares could be bought and sold on the stock market. The company opened a new coffee roasting plant in Alameda, California in 2007. This new plant replaced their older one in Emeryville, California.
In 2012, a German investment group bought Peet's. This group is called JAB Holding Company. They paid $977.6 million for Peet's. JAB Holding also owns parts of other companies.
Expanding the Peet's Family
Peet's has grown by adding other companies to its family. In 2014, Peet's bought Mighty Leaf Tea. This company sells special teas. In 2015, Peet's also took over Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Later that same month, Peet's bought a large part of Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.
In 2015, Peet's Coffee joined with another company called Jacobs Douwe Egberts. Together, they formed a new company called JDE Peet's. Both companies were mostly owned by JAB Holding.
In December 2016, Peet's announced plans to build a second large roasting plant. This new plant is in Suffolk, Virginia. It is very big, about 175,000 square feet. The plant opened in 2018. At that time, the Alameda plant was roasting about 1 million pounds of coffee every week.
Peet's also started to expand internationally. In October 2017, Peet's opened its first store in Shanghai, China.
Where You Can Find Peet's
As of 2025, Peet's has more than 250 stores. These stores are in 13 different states across the United States. You can find them in states like California, Illinois, New York, and Washington. Peet's also has stores in the District of Columbia. As mentioned, Peet's expanded to China in 2018, opening a store in Shanghai.
Peet's used to have stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. However, they closed these stores in 2014 to focus on areas where they were growing more.
By December 2016, Peet's coffee was sold in 14,000 grocery stores. It was also available at universities and through other sellers across the United States.
Workers and Unions
Sometimes, workers at Peet's stores have decided to form unions. A union is a group of workers who join together to improve their working conditions. They might talk about things like pay, work schedules, and safety.
In November 2022, workers at two Peet's locations in Davis, California, asked to hold union elections. In January 2023, workers at the North Davis location voted to join a union. This made it the first Peet's store in the United States with a union.
In June 2023, workers at other California locations in Berkeley and Temescal also asked to join a union. In July 2023, workers at these stores voted to have union representation.
More recently, in August 2024, workers at a Berkeley store voted to join a union. In October 2024, workers at a Portland, Oregon, store also voted to join a union. This was the first Peet's union store outside of California.
Workers at these stores often mentioned low pay, difficult schedules, and unsafe working conditions as reasons for wanting a union.
Peet's and Universities
Peet's has partnerships with many universities. In 2003, the first full Peet's coffee shop on a university campus opened at Stanford University. Peet's coffee is also served in all Stanford dining areas.
In 2005, UC Berkeley opened its own Peet's shop on campus. Other universities like UW–Madison, Villanova University, and UC San Diego also opened Peet's coffee shops on their campuses in 2009.
Peet's has also supported coffee research. In September 2016, Peet's gave money to the University of California, Davis. This money helped start the Coffee Center, a place for studying coffee. UC Davis is the first university in the world to focus deeply on coffee studies after the beans are harvested.
What Peet's Sells
Peet's offers more than just coffee. In September 2015, Peet's started adding breakfast items to its menu all day long. This change began in Chicago and then spread to other locations.
Peet's also sells bottled cold brew coffee. They started selling this in July 2016 in the San Francisco area. It came in flavors like Baridi Black, Coffee au Lait, and Dark Chocolate. In May 2017, they added an Almond Milk option to their cold brew line.
In December 2016, Peet's added a "Slow Bar" to one of its new stores. This bar offers special ways to make coffee, like French press, pour-over, and siphon brewing.
In March 2025, the company announced a change. Starting in June, they would no longer charge extra for plant-based milk in their drinks.
Peet's Influence on Coffee
Alfred Peet had a big impact on the coffee world. When the three people who started Starbucks were planning their company, they talked to Alfred Peet. He became like a "father mentor" to them. He even let them copy the design of his store and shared his coffee suppliers.
Peet's has many loyal fans, sometimes called "Peetniks." This name combines "Peet's" with "beatniks," a group of people from the 1950s.
Peet's was one of the first companies to sell high-quality coffee beans and brewed coffee. They roasted their beans longer, which made the coffee darker and less sour than other coffees available in the US at the time. Many people see Peet's as one of the first important businesses in the world of gourmet coffee.
Two British men who worked at Peet's in the early 1990s later started their own company called Union Coffee Roasters in the United Kingdom.
See also
- List of coffeehouse chains
