A Blue Bottle Espresso location in Pudong, Shanghai, China.
Nestlé has confirmed that it’s promoting Blue Bottle Espresso to Chinese language personal fairness agency Centurium Capital, the bulk shareholder of Luckin Espresso, marking the primary direct affirmation from any of the businesses concerned {that a} gross sales settlement was reached.
The Swiss meals and beverage large disclosed the settlement in its April 23 three-month gross sales launch, saying the transaction is topic to customary circumstances and is predicted to shut throughout the first half of 2026. Monetary phrases weren’t disclosed.
The affirmation follows experiences of the potential settlement that surfaced in March in Chinese language media retailers. Day by day Espresso Information reached out to Nestlé, Blue Bottle and Centurium at the moment however didn’t obtain remark or affirmation. Reuters first reported in Dec. 2025 that Nestlé was exploring a sale of Blue Bottle.
The Swiss conglomerate acquired the Oakland-founded espresso chain in 2017 in a deal price roughly $425 million, valuing the corporate at greater than $700 million. The deal despatched shockwaves via the specialty espresso world, persevering with a pattern towards big-money consolidation in craft-focused or “Third Wave” specialty espresso.
Nestlé’s gross sales launch didn’t spell out the property included within the Centurium deal. Citing a Nestlé spokesperson, Meals Dive reported that the transaction contains Blue Bottle’s cafes and the vast majority of its shopper packaged items enterprise, whereas Nestlé will retain the rights to Blue Bottle-branded single-serve Nespresso pods.
Centurium turned Luckin’s controlling shareholder in 2022, following Luckin’s restructuring after a 2020 accounting scandal that led to a $180 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee.
A brand new Luckin Espresso roastery in Qingdao, China. 2026 press launch picture.
Luckin has since returned to quick progress. The Xiamen, China-based chain reported $7.03 billion in 2025 income whereas including 8,708 web new shops to complete the 12 months with 31,048 places globally. Simply this week, the corporate mentioned it opened China’s largest roastery, which it mentioned has the world’s largest roasting machine.
Nestlé advertising supplies say Blue Bottle now has greater than 100 cafes throughout the US and Asia, alongside e-commerce and subscription companies. As of December 2025, Blue Bottle had 78 U.S. places.
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