Is Nestlé Selling Blue Bottle Coffee? The Fall of a $700M Specialty Coffee Icon
Global food giant Nestlé is looking for buyers for its high-end coffee chain Blue Bottle Coffee, and the potential sale may be valued below the $700 million acquisition price from seven years ago. This move is not only another round of strategic “slimming” under Nestlé’s new CEO, but also exposes the core pain point of the specialty coffee industry—when the craftsmanship-driven world of “slow coffee” collides with the scale-first logic of “fast commerce,” the once-popular stories of quality are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. I. Nestlé’s “Amputation”: A Strategic Cut That Was Bound to Happen Nestlé’s consideration of selling Blue Bottle Coffee is far from a spontaneous decision; it is a key step in its systematic strategic restructuring. 1. A New CEO’s Iron-Fisted “Slimming” Since Philippe Navratil (Fei Nairui) took office, Nestlé has launched sweeping reforms: 16,000 global layoffs over the next two years—12,000 of which are white-collar positions—aiming to save 1...