Les 2 Marmottes has been acquired by Jacobs Douwe Egberts

July 2022 — The Dutch coffee industrial Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) has acquired the well-known French herbal tea brand Les 2 Marmottes.

Founded in 1979 in Haute Savoie, France, Les 2 Marmottes is the number three herbal tea player in France through its emblematic and well-known brand. The company, with 90 employees, generated sales of approximately US$23 million in 2021, +31.6% year-on-year, just behind Lipton and L’Eléphant. From its workshop in Bons-en-Chablais, in the heart of the Alps, Les 2 Marmottes produces herbal tea without added flavoring selected directly from producers. The arrival of the private equity fund FrenchFood in 2018 with Christian Polge, previously at Coca-Cola, marked a turning point for the company that has demonstrated strong organic growth (CAGR 2018–2021, +14%) since then.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) is a Dutch-listed group that has more than 50 brands in its portfolio, such as L'Or, Senseo, Grand’Mère and Maxwell House. JDE sells 4,500 cups of coffee or tea per second worldwide and has a turnover of US$7 billion and an EBITDA of US$1.3 billion.

FrenchFood Capital is a private equity firm headquartered in Paris, focused on food businesses. The firm provides equity capital to innovative, fast-growing and value-added SMEs in the food sector with tickets between US$5 and US$15 million. It supports entrepreneurs in their growth projects in France and abroad, while adopting an environmental, societal and balanced governance approach.

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins’ team in France led a very competitive process in which it acted as the exclusive sell-side financial advisor to support Les 2 Marmottes in their choice of the best partner between several private equity funds and industrials to pursue its growth.