More buyers on the table for Carte Noire

It’s the brand that just won’t sell.

After talks with Lavazza stalled, Mondelez International have stated that they are discussing the sale of the Carte Noire brand with a number of interested parties as they hope to push through a deal in order to satisfy European antitrust regulators.

Lavazza, the world famous Italian coffee company, who had entered a period of exclusivity with Mondelez, has opted to purchase Merrild from D.E Master Blenders – just to confuse things.

We say ‘confuse things’, because the enforced sale of Carte Noire has come about after Mondelez International and D.E Master Blenders agreed to merge, a decision which would create one of the largest coffee and beverages in the world. Overseers decreed that some parts of the Mondelez business would have to offload as to not create a monopoly in certain European areas.

Valued in the region of $1.1 billion according to some sources, Carte Noire, whose portfolio covers beans, instant coffee, pods and a range of apparel, is generally seen as the sticking point for the antitrust authorities, despite Mondelez offering two other French brands – L’Or and Grand Mere – to their rivals.

Lavazza had previous entertained a privileged buying position; with Vice President Giuseppe Lavazza saying that negotiations would likely finish in the middle of June and that the company were “officially in [the race].”

The merger of Mondelez International and the Dutch-based D.E. Master Blenders is still set to go ahead, though Carte Noire will have to be sold at some point in the near future. The resulting entity of this gigantic union, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, is expected to have about 17% of the world’s total coffee sales.