Profile: Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU.O)

Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (Caribou) is a specialty retailer of coffees, teas, bakery goods and related merchandise. The Company is a majority-owned subsidiary of Caribou Holding Company Limited. As of December 28, 2008, the Company had 511 coffeehouses, including 97 franchised locations, located in Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Nebraska, Washington, D.C and international markets. Caribou focuses on offering its customers gourmet coffee and espresso-based beverages, as well as specialty teas baked goods, whole bean coffee, branded merchandise and related products. Additionally, it sells its whole bean and ground coffee to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, office coffee providers, airlines, hotels, sports and entertainment venues, college campuses and on-line customers. The Company has three reportable operating segments: retail, commercial and franchise.

Retail

As of December 28, 2008, the Company operated 414 company operated coffeehouses located in 16 states and the District of Columbia, including 211 coffeehouses in Minnesota and 53 coffeehouses in Illinois. The Company focuses on offering its customers gourmet coffee and espresso-based beverages, and also offer specialty teas, baked goods, whole bean coffee, branded merchandise and related products.

Commercial

The commercial segment sells gourmet whole and ground coffee to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, office coffee providers, airlines, hotels, sports and entertainment venues, college campuses and on-line customers. The Company focuses to build existing relationships with grocery stores and national office coffee providers and add new points of distribution for its gourmet whole bean and ground coffee.

Franchise

The franchise segment sells franchises to operate Caribou Coffee brand coffeehouses to domestic and international franchisees. As of December 28, 2008, there were 97 with 59 of the franchised coffeehouses in international markets.

The Company's competes with Starbucks Corporation, Kraft Foods Inc., Nestle Inc. and Proctor & Gamble.