Brief - The Hustle

After picking up Krispy Kreme for breakfast, JAB buys Insomnia Cookies for dessert

Written by Conor Grant | Jun 30, 2020 10:03:30 AM

Krispy Kreme purchased Insomnia Cookies, a popular cookie company that caters to drunk sugar cravings, for a little under $500m.

Krispy Kreme’s owner, Luxembourgian coffee empire JAB Holdings, has a serious sweet tooth: It acquired Krispy Kreme for $1.35B 2 years ago and will now offer a new variety of sugar-high with its cookies.

Drunk munchies are big business

In college at the UPenn, Seth Berkowitz sold late-night cookies to fellow students. The business was so successful that he expanded the operation, which he called Insomnia Cookies, by replicating the simple menu, small storefront, and late-night hours in other college towns.

The business model turned out to be even hotter than the cookies: From 2015 to 2018, the number of Insomnia locations nearly doubled. Now, the company sells cookies from 135 locations and operates a lucrative online delivery business. 

Taking another JAB at your sweet tooth

JAB, which runs a multinational coffee conglomerate that includes Keurig, Green Mountain, Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee, and Dr. Pepper, is now buying up snack companies to supplement its beverage biz.

By combining Krispy Kreme’s 81-year-old donut dynasty with the late-night cookie company, JAB hopes to broaden its reach beyond the b-fast table. Insomnia provides both a new demographic (drunk college kids) and also a new distribution opportunity (its delivery business).