Italian coffee company Illycaffe may bring new investors on board in the medium term but the founding family wants to keep control of the business.
CEO Massimiliano Pogliani told Reuters that the company has rebuffed overtures from larger rivals looking to buy it.
In October Illycaffe signed a licencing deal with conglomerate JAB Holding to produce and sell Illy-branded coffee pods that work in rival Nestle’s Nespresso machines.
But the company stopped short of giving JAB – the holding company of Germany’s Reimann family and owner of other coffee companies including Jacob Douwe Egberts and Keurig Dr Pepper – a stake in the group.
“Illycaffe is not up for sale,” Pogliani told Reuters when asked whether JAB could become a shareholder in future.
However, the Illy family could bring in investors to speed up a plan laid out in 2016 to double revenue in 10 years, Mr Pogliani told Reuters. Illycaffe has no plans to grow through acquisitions, he said.
