November 14/Seattle/Bloomberg -- Starbucks Corp. announced an agreement to buy Teavana Holdings Inc. for about $620 million. Teavana, the company’s biggest acquisition, is another building block in chief executive officer Howard Schultz’s plan to take Starbucks well beyond its coffee roots and namesake shops. Since returning as CEO in 2008, Schultz has revived the company and is making moves to sustain revenue growth with instant coffee, energy drinks, juice, a single-serve brewer and food to sell in its shops and in grocery stores.
Starbucks, which dropped the word “coffee” from its logo last year, already owns the Tazo tea brand and last year bought Evolution Fresh Inc. for $30 million and Bay Bread LLC this year for $100 million. The company is also expanding its retail presence in the U.S. beyond Starbucks cafes with a Tazo shop and a new, smaller design for its Seattle’s Best Coffee locations, which it plans to take nationwide.