Indian Company Buys America’s Eight O’Clock Coffee
India’s largest coffee growing company, Tata Coffee Ltd., has signed a deal to acquire U.S.-based 147-year-old Eight O’Clock Coffee Co. from Gryphon Investors for US$220 million (euro175 million).
The deal is the latest in a string of overseas acquisitions by top Indian companies, which are trying to increase global visibility after thriving for decades on domestic sales and government protection.
Earlier Mittal Steel’s takeover of Arcelor reinforced the growing need for consolidation in the global steel industry and to bring down the cost of production, given the capacity expansions in China.
Similarly, the Tata Steel had earlier acquired capacities in East Asia and it seems inevitable that other large Indian players would also need to acquire or build capacities in key consuming centres across the globe to remain competitive, says the Business Standard.
Meanwhile Tata Coffee has found its way into the world’s largest coffee market ($21 billion). The new acquisition will help the Indian company gain a foothold in the U.S. market and leverage the Eight O’Clock Coffee brand to become a global player, Tata Coffee said in a statement Sunday.
Eight O’Clock Coffee, headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey, makes whole bean and ground coffee for customers in the United States and Canada, and has a roasting facility in Landover, Maryland.
11 Responses to “Indian Company Buys America’s Eight O’Clock Coffee”
What is this? The India business report? Can somebody please explain the relevance?
You seem to have a serious problem with anything that isn’t the usual U.S. political horserace. Check some of the links Joe has to Oxblog and Watching America and a few others. A weblog can have other things besides stories about Democrats and Republicans. I’m glad this one does.
We’re now in a global economy as well and it’s quite interesting that an INdian company has acquired a major American coffee company. Outsourcing has gotten a love of coverage over the past few years; also (unless I’m wrong on this) an Indian company bought a major overseas animation company. When I lived in India in the early to mid 70s this kind of thing was merely dreamed of and many considered it an idealistic, unattainable dream. Well, now it is reality. I think these kinds of posts are quite enlightening – and important.
Lets see…”The Moderate Voice- A political independent and Moderate’s irreverent comments analysis and comments on important stories and news”.
Did I miss something here? Since these India related business reports are not politics, and, are clearly not important stories or news, is it offensive to ask why they are relevent?
Well Joe, I do see your point. Tell me Joe, do you have any concern for the employees of these companies?
Well it is only a foreign business company that has come to US…not the soldiers from another country!!!
Swaraaj
I see. It is not the first foreign business to come here. So tell me, what is in it for us?
Salmineo: One of the nice features of TMV is that it presents different viewpoints.
India represents a substantial fraction of the world’s population, is the world’s largest democracy, it has among the top educational institutions in the world (IIT is approximately 20 times as hard to get into as Harvard), nuclear capability, and an economy that is growing at 8+ percent per year. We’ve already seen labour arbitrage in the software and electronics industries move substantial amounts of production in those industries to India and China. In the case of India the rule of thumb was that the fully loaded cost of a software engineer was 1/5th of the U.S. In medical research, the number is more like 1/10th, and India has lots of potential participants in clinical trials, and lots of good doctors and medical training facilities. What this means is that in 20 years, a substantial share of the new medical treatments in the world will originate in India.
So the question is not whether we talk about India, it’s only a matter of when. On the issue of why Indian M&A should concern us, most people spend the majority of the waking hours working. The governance of companies can affect the environment (Exxon), retirement security (Enron), investors (also Enron), national security (Dubai Ports) etc. Many of the best Indian companies have aggressively pursued independent international certifications of excellence in their business processes in order to win business abroad. Thus their accounting disclosures, quality control, software engineering practices in many cases are the best in the world, surpassing U.S. companies. What effect will they have on the U.S. economy and business practices? Who knows? Seems like a story that will unfold over the next while, and a story worth reading.
Just my rant …
I say why even argue over and about it guys and gals.
Lets just stake big ole a sign up in the middle Kansas saying
United States For Sale To All Foreign Powers
Inquire Within
If that isn’t politically relevent what is.
Very Good Mr.Bell….
My personal experience with Indian business is that they are ruthlessly corrupt and that they treat their employees outside the United States not much above slave status. I am vehemently opposed to the oppression of working people, be they Indian or American.
Will my comments be allowed to reside here in defense of human beings NOT deriving their income from business speculation?
OR
Is this a purely capitalist website where human beings not in business have no voice?
Marx and many others were also concerned with the exploitation of the working class. You have seen what has happened to communism in the world. That means a strategy which is based on violence is unlikely to succeed.
Mahatma Gandhi gave another alternative. He once famously said that in this world there is enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.
In the early part of the 20th century, Gandhi evolved his “Theory of Truteeship“. He was also a journalist and many of his ideas were published in his newspaper “Harijan” (India’s untouchable whom he called God’s Own People).
He wrote in 1935: “Those who own money now, are asked to behave like trustees holding their riches on behalf of the poor. You may say that trusteeship is a legal fiction. But if people meditate over it constantly and try to act up to it, then life on earth would be governed far more by love than it is at present.
“Absolute trusteeship is an abstraction like Euclid’s definition of a point, and is equally unattainable. But if we strive for it, we shall be able to go further in realizing state of equality on earth than by any other method.
“As for the present owners of wealth, they will have to make their choice between class war and voluntarily converting themselves into trustees of their wealth. They will be allowed to retain the stewardship of their possessions and to use their talent, to increase the wealth, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of the nation and, therefore, without exploitation…
“Supposing India becomes a free country tomorrow, all the capitalists will have an opportunity of becoming statutory trustees. But such a statute will not be imposed from above. It will have to come from below.
“When the people understand the implications of trusteeship and the atmosphere is ripe for it, the people themselves, beginning with gram panchayats (local bodies), will begin to introduce such statutes. Such a thing coming from below is easy to swallow. Coming from above it is liable to prove a dead weight.
“My theory of ‘trusteeship’ is no make-shift, certainly no camouflage. I am confident that it will survive all other theories. It has the sanction of philosophy and religion behind it.
“I am not ashamed to own that many capitalists are friendly towards me and do not fear me. They know that I desire to end capitalism, almost, if not quite, as much as the most advanced Socialist or even Communist. But our methods differ, our languages differ.”
Salmineo, it is interesting to note that when India became indpendent of the British rule in 1947 and many politicions were now lusting for top posts, Mahatma Gandhi quitely left the seat of power – Delhi – and went to eastern India to work with volunteers to control communal frenzy.
He understood that his ideas/philosophy were not
finding favour with the new emerging leadership and simply bowed out from the spotlight. Here was a man who guided India to independence and about him Albert Einstein said: “Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”
For more on the interaction between Gandhi and Einstein here is a website.