Coke plans to buy coffee chain

Coca-Cola announced Friday it plans to buy Costa, one of the world’s biggest coffee chains, for $5.1 billion.

“The deal puts Coke squarely into a red-hot battle in the coffee world, one that until now had been dominated by two food giants. One is Nestlé, which owns Nescafé and the high-end Blue Bottle chain. The other is JAB, the acquisitive European conglomerate that has snapped up Peet’s Coffee, Caribou Coffee, Stumptown and more,” The New York Times said Friday.

“It’s more important than ever that Coca-Cola make a serious and significant investment in the category, because it’s the right thing to do to serve our consumers with more of the drinks they want, which in turn helps our customers,” James Quincey, Coke’s chief executive, wrote in a corporate blog post.

Costa trails only Starbucks and McDonald’s in its number of worldwide coffee locations. It has more than 2,400 stores in the United Kingdom and 1,400 in Europe and Asia, as well as 8,000 Costa Express self-serve machines.

Costa’s current owner is the British hospitality company Whitbread, which acquired the coffee chain in 1995, according to The Times.

Changes hands

Yager-Kirchhofer Funeral Home of Berne has been acquired by Zwick and Jahn Funeral Home, Decatur, it was announced last week.

All current staff and the Berne funeral home will remain, the two parties said.

Sales up

Dollar General Corp’s quarterly same-store sales rose 3.7 percent in the second quarter ended Aug. 3, the company reported. 

Shares of the discount store operator have been up 38 percent in the past year.

Tats OK

Indiana University Health, parent of IU Health Jay, has relaxed its stance on tattoos and other parts of its dress code, allowing employees for the first time to have tattoos and non-natural hair color.

The move, officials told The Indy Star, reflects the organization’s value of “messaging authenticity” and trusting employees to make their own decisions about their demeanor.

“We want you to bring your whole self to work while maintaining a professional image,” Michelle Janney, chief nurse executive of IU Health, told the Star. “We knew that many of our caregivers had tattoos that they were hiding and that just didn’t feel genuine to us. Actually what we’re saying is use good judgment and we trust you.”          

Revenues mixed

Gannett, publisher of the Muncie StarPress, said this week that while digital revenues continued to climb those were offset by ongoing declines in print advertising and circulation. 

The company reported net income of $16.3 million for the quarter. Last year, Gannett reported a net loss of $490,000 for the same period.

Total operating revenue for the quarter declined 5.6 percent to $730.8 million from $774.5 million in the prior year.

Files patent

Walmart has applied for patents that envision a virtual showroom for shoppers, The Washington Post reported.

“Customers could browse and interact with merchandise through a 3D simulation that responds to their gestures, the filings indicate. And in turn, the simulations could generate sensory feedback such as the feeling of moisture, heat, force and wind, as users manipulate the items. The filing for the fulfillment center includes plans for autonomous robots to fetch and deliver merchandise that a user interacts with in a 3D simulation with hand controls,” The Post reported.

Vet project

The Veterans Administration said this week it is working with Walgreens to coordinate patient and pharmaceutical care for patients enrolled with the VA.

If all goes as planned, the entire medication and immunization history will be available with the click of a button.

“This arrangement is the first of its kind and it’s a strong collaboration,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a press release. “Partnerships like this will help VA continue to improve the way we care for Veterans.” 

For the past five years, the VA and Walgreens have worked together to provide flu shots at no cost for enrolled veterans.

Gen Z target

A new Forbes article focuses on efforts by Tyson Foods to target what is known as Gen Z, the consumer generation following the millennials.

Jen Bentz, Tyson’s senior vice president of research and development, told Forbes Gen Z consumers — born in the mid-1990s through about 2012 — are grounded and pragmatic.

“They are part of the maker movement. They save money. They have grown up in a post-9/11 world and have only lived during a time of war. In their short lifetimes, they have also lived through an economic and an environmental crisis,” said Forbes.

Some estimates show that Gen Z yields $143 billion in spending power. 

Tyson Foods is the parent company of Portland’s Tyson Mexican Original.