New JAB CEO Joachim Creus played a 'critical role’ in establishing JAB’s focus on consumer goods and services | Photo credit: JAB Holding Company

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JAB Holding Company has hailed ‘generational change’ after appointing Joachim Creus as its next CEO.

Stepping down after 12 years in the role, Olivier Goudet said: “With my 60th approaching, now is the right time to open a new chapter… I’m convinced that JAB has the right team in place for the future and I look forward to remaining a shareholder.”
 
In a significant reshuffle of the investment giant’s senior leadership team Goudet will become a Senior Investment Advisor to the business, with Frank Engelen, who joined JAB’s pet insurance platform in 2020, promoted to Managing Partner. Creus will continue as Vice Chairman of the JAB Board and is the designated successor to Chairman Peter Harf.
 
In a press release, JAB credited Creus with playing a ‘critical role’ in establishing the investment firm’s focus on consumer goods and services over his more than 13 years with the business.
 
“Continuity of leadership is paramount at a firm like JAB, and the appointment of Joachim to CEO is a testament to our strong faith in his vision. Over the last decade, not only has Joachim been instrumental to building an enduring investment firm, he has also become a member of the extended Reimann family,” said JAB Chairman Peter Harf.
 
“Olivier is an exceptional investor, and on behalf of JAB, I want to thank him for his leadership over the last 12 years,” added Harf.
 
Goudet is credited with tripling the investment firm’s equity and leading its strategic transformation into the consumer goods market. Notably, Goudet introduced JAB’s coffee and beverage strategy with the acquisition of Peet’s Coffee in 2012.
 
Since then, JAB Holding has amassed a formidable investment portfolio of major coffee brands. Together with JAB Consumer Partners, JAB is the controlling shareholder of JDE Peet’s, a group of more than 50 coffee brands, including Peet's, Jacobs, Senseo, Tassimo, Douwe Egberts, Old Town, Super, Pickwick and Moccona.
 
JAB is also the largest shareholder of Keurig Dr Pepper Inc, the coffee soft beverages giant it created in 2018 after merging its Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper businesses in deal then valued at $18.7bn.
 
The Luxembourg-headquartered firm acquired Swedish coffee chain Espresso House in 2015 and in 2018 bought UK food-to-go and coffee chain Pret A Manger in a deal reportedly valued at $1.9bn. 2021 saw JAB create Panera Brands, a 4,000-store fast casual group comprised of its Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagels businesses.
 
In March 2022 JAB hailed a decade of coffee industry investments, with its hospitality brands representing more than $23bn in assets and transforming the investment firm into one of the one of the largest fast-casual and retail packaged coffee businesses in the world.
 
JAB is the controlling shareholder of cosmetics giant Coty Inc. alongside pet services providers, the National Veterinary Associates, the Independence Pet Group and Pinnacle Pet Group. JAB Holding Company also owns luxury goods company Bally, with its total portfolio exceeding $50bn of managed capital.