Lavazza Buys Carte Noire and Targets €2bn Sales

TURIN – The world’s seventh-biggest coffee roaster, Lavazza, has offered to buy French brand Carte Noire, the French leader in the coffee market, for around 800 million euros in a deal that will reach the company a leadership position in France and the second in Europe.

In a offer subjected to approval by the European Commission and French authorities, Lavazza has offered to purchase:

• Carte Noire’s roast and ground coffee, filter pads and Nespresso-compatable capsules business
• the French company’s plant in Laverune.

Lavazza’s offer values the French brand at 11.5 times its core earnings. In 2015 the group’s turnover increased 8.1% surpassing 1.4 billion. In 2016 it expects to reach 1.7 billion. The company plans to increase its annual revenues by almost 50 percent to 2 billion euros within 5 years.