What a takeover of Dr Pepper says about a secretive family’s plans
The Reimann clan’s JAB Holding investment group switches from coffee to fizzy drinks
Feb 3rd 2018
EUROPE is home to some extraordinary wealth creators who often try to hide their success. Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish farmer’s son, constructed IKEA, a seller of flat-pack furniture that became a global giant with annual revenues of €38bn ($47bn). He died at the age of 91 on January 27th, after a famously frugal life. Amancio Ortega, the Spanish son of a railway worker, founded Inditex, a fast-fashion giant, and shuns any media attention. Then there is the reclusive Reimann family of Germany, members of which reportedly take a vow at the age of 18 not to talk publicly about their business, JAB Holding, a Luxembourg-based investment group.
Yet JAB’s habit of gulping down big, famous firms at a frenetic pace is making it hard for it to stay in the shadows. On January 29th it said it will pay $18.7bn in cash (plus some shares)to buy Dr Pepper Snapple, the world’s fifth-biggest maker of soft drinks, which has roots dating back to 1885. It will be combined with Keurig Green Mountain, an American coffee producer that JAB bought in 2016 for $14bn. In the past few years most of its targets have been in the coffee business, so a maker of ice-cold beverages is a departure. As it has done with Keurig, JAB plans to squeeze costs and pay down hefty debt, while winning market share.
frugal: careful about spending money or using things when you do not need to: using money or suppliers in a very careful way
第一段开篇说欧洲的富商都比较低调，就列举了三位富商，过着节俭的生活，不愿接受采访，最后这位就是今天的主角...
frenetic: filled with excitement, activity, or confusion: wild or frantic
JAB’s focus on consumer-goods firms in America, especially coffee producers, could suggest it hopes to rival giants such as Nestle and Starbucks. In the past couple of years it also paid $1.35bn for Krispy Kreme, a maker of doughnuts and coffee, and $7.5bn for Panera Bread, a bakery chain with over 2,000 outlets.That deal was touted as one of the biggest in the global restaurant industry.An earlier plan to emulate Europe’s luxury groups, such as France’s LVMH, in building collections of brands has been dropped. Last year JAB offloaded Jimmy Choo, a maker of shoes, for $1.2bn. It hopes also to sell Bally, another luxury firm.
The change of focus looks astute.Consumers, readier to pay more for experiences rather than just products, show an ever-growing fondness for pricey shots of strong coffee, especially those squirted via plastic pods. A survey last year found that 41% of American adults drink “speciality” coffee (industry jargon for pricier stuff) daily, up from just 9% in 1999. Many of these are quaffed at home. Next, firms want to encourage consumers to down cold drinks—perhaps Dr Pepper or Snapple forstarters—using similar pod systems.
emulate: to try to be like (someone or something you admire)
astute: having or showing an ability to notice and understanding things clearly: mentally sharp or clever
squirt: to suddenly force a liquid out through a small opening
JAB集团开始进攻美国的消费品市场，特别是咖啡，在过去的几年里收购了好几个餐饮集团；它原本的计划是成为LVMH那样的奢侈品集团，但最近变了，把Jimmy Choo卖了，准备把Bally也卖了
从上面的转变可以看出他们的计划，主攻咖啡，因为美国消费者对于好品质的咖啡是有迷之消费能力的...
Being sure of what JAB plans for the future is tricky. It is managed by professionals, but decisions on what to buy are taken by the Reimann family. The legal descendants of Ludwig Reimann, a chemist and industrialist, their wealth has variously been valued at €16bn-33bn. As JAB grows, analysts increasingly liken it to 3G, a feared Brazilian investment group that snaps up makers of consumer products like Kraft Heinz before slashing costs and jacking up returns. JAB claims to have a different philosophy, emphasising the long term. Given its secretive owners and previous turns of strategy, however, it is hard to know whether to take that notion seriously.
JAB 是由有经验的人在经营搭理（CEO或者职业经理人等），但最终决定还是他们家族的人来做，家族资产160亿欧元-330亿欧元
分析家们就把JAB和3G类比，一个英国的投资集团，吞并了一些消费品集团（Kraft Heinz很大的品牌啊），但JAB说他们有不同的理念，强调长期发展...
总结：每次看商业文章，都感觉这些数字真的很遥远，但确实是人家身家
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Results
Lexile®Measure: 1300L - 1400L
Mean Sentence Length: 20.50
Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.10
Word Count: 492
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