Which company sold Seattle's Best Coffee to Starbucks in 2003?

AFC Enterprises sold Seattle’s Best Coffee to Starbucks in 2003.

The transaction took place in April 2003, when Starbucks acquired Seattle’s Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises for about $72 million. The purchase added roughly 150 stores, but the wholesale coffee business was especially valuable because it expanded Starbucks’ reach beyond its company-operated cafés.

Seattle’s Best Coffee had a longer history than its Starbucks ownership. Its roots went back to the Wet Whisker, a coffee-and-ice-cream shop founded by Jim Stewart on Whidbey Island in 1969. The business later became Stewart Brothers Coffee and then Seattle’s Best Coffee. AFC Enterprises had acquired the parent business in 1998.

A common mix-up is Nestlé: Starbucks sold the Seattle’s Best Coffee brand to Nestlé in 2022. That later sale does not change the answer to the 2003 question. Kraft Foods and Sara Lee were not the seller in this transaction.