Dear Coffee Lovers,
It was a real pleasure and honestly, a privilege to speak at the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) in Heilbronn in front of ~100 highly engaged students from the Food Management program.
We went deep into one of the most fascinating case studies in our industry: the partnership between Nestlé and Starbucks.
Not from a textbook perspective — but from the inside out.
Having spent more than two decades working across the Nestlé coffee business, closely observing, competing with Starbucks globally and finally launching Starbucks in retail in the DACH region, I shared a very personal view on what this deal really represents:
👉 Not just a licensing agreement
👉 Not just a distribution play
👉 But a fundamental shift in how coffee brands scale globally
My key message to the students:
We are no longer in a “product war” in coffee.
We are in a content and ecosystem war.
* Starbucks owns one of the strongest emotional brand narratives in coffee
* Nestlé owns one of the most powerful global distribution and execution infrastructures
The 2018 deal was not about selling more capsules or beans.
It was about combining story + system at scale.
And that’s where it gets interesting:
➡️ Coffee today is driven by occasions, formats, and experiences and not just origin or roast
➡️ The real competitive advantage is built on access to consumers, data, and repeat engagement
➡️ Platforms like capsules, RTD, or DTC models are becoming the infrastructure of the industry
The discussion with the students was sharp, curious, and refreshingly direct. Exactly the kind of exchange our industry needs more of.
What I take away from today:
There is a new generation entering the coffee industry that is not romanticizing the past. They are questioning the system and that’s a very good sign. Thanks again to the student team and Prof. Dr. Carsten Leo Demming for the invitation as well the open exchange. Looking forward to continuing the conversation.
