Starbucks expands into juices with Evolution Fresh acquisition

Coffee king, Starbucks Corp yesterday paid $30 million to buy juice company Evolution Fresh, a subsidiary of US-based Juice Harvest Corporation, which may slowly transform the company from a pure play coffee to a food and beverage company.

 ''Our intention is to reinvent this category in the same tonality that we have reinvented over the last 40 years the basic commodity of coffee,'' said CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz about the acquisition in a conference call.

The world's largest coffee chain will bring the juice out in stores similar to its branded retail stores, in the US West Coast by the middle of next year and plans to include it in a new health and wellness retail concept.

Founded by Jimmy Rosenberg, Evolution makes juices out of raw fruits and vegetables at its juicery in San Bernardino, California through a technology called High Pressure Pasteurization (HPP). The juice is sold in West Coast stores including Whole Foods and PCC Natural Markets.

"Using HPP to help ensure the inherent nutrients are kept intact during the juicing process is a key point of differentiation for a growing number of our juices," said Rosenberg.

Schultz said that acquiring Evolution Fresh, which offers juices such as tangerine and organic ginger limeade, is an important step toward entering the $1.6 billion premium juice business and the $50 billion health foods market.