Kraft Heinz Sells Its Coffee Business, Including Jacksonville's Maxwell House Plant, to One Rock Capital in $650 Million Deal

Kraft Heinz has agreed to sell its North American coffee business, including the downtown Jacksonville roasting plant that is the last Maxwell House production site in the United States, to an affiliate of private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners in a deal valued at $650 million. Kraft Heinz will keep a 30% stake in the business, and the sale is expected to close in mid-2027.

The deal puts the future of one of downtown Jacksonville's best known industrial landmarks, the coffee plant on East Bay Street that has roasted Maxwell House for about a century, in the hands of a new majority owner.

The deal

Kraft Heinz disclosed the agreement in its quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "On November 3, 2026, we entered into a definitive agreement to divest our North America coffee business to an affiliate of One Rock Capital Partners, LLC at an enterprise value of $650 million," the company wrote. It said it "will retain a 30% non-controlling equity stake in the business," and that the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.

According to News4JAX, Kraft Heinz expects net cash proceeds of about $500 million after taxes, which it plans to use to pay down debt. The company said the sale supports its strategy of focusing investment on areas where it can accelerate growth.

The brands going to the new owner are:

• Maxwell House
• Gevalia
• Nabob
• Yuban
• Tassimo
• Ethical Bean
• Sanka

The sale includes coffee manufacturing plants in Jacksonville and in Vancouver, British Columbia. About 250 employees are expected to transfer with the business, News4JAX reported, though the report did not say how many of them work in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Daily Record has previously reported that the Bay Street plant employs about 200 people.

What the companies said

Kraft Heinz CEO Steve Cahillane said the company is "proud of the role these brands have played in the lives of generations of coffee drinkers." Tony W. Lee, a managing partner at One Rock, said the firm has long admired the brands, which have been "household staples for more than 100 years."

One Rock, a New York based private equity firm, has bought several food and ingredient manufacturers in recent years. Its affiliates acquired ingredient maker Innophos in a $932 million deal in 2020, took an ownership stake in Indiana's Lewis Bakeries in 2024 and completed the purchase of the European savory snack maker Europe Snacks that December.

A century of coffee on Bay Street

The Jacksonville plant traces its roots to 1910, when the Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., the company behind Maxwell House, opened a plant along Bay Street, according to historical accounts in local publications. The site was chosen because coffee beans could arrive by barge on the St. Johns River. The original operation was small, with about 30 workers.

The current five story roasting plant at 735 E. Bay St. was built in 1924. It was designed by Jacksonville architect Roy Benjamin, and the complex later expanded to roughly 400,000 square feet. The plant has outlasted other Maxwell House sites, including the brand's former plant in Hoboken, New Jersey, and is now the last place Maxwell House is made in the United States.

Its survival has not always been assured. In 1990, state enterprise zone benefits were part of a $4.8 million package of incentives offered to keep the Jacksonville plant open, according to local reporting.

Years of trying to sell Maxwell House

The sale ends a long search for a buyer. In February 2019, CNBC reported that Kraft Heinz had hired Credit Suisse to explore options for Maxwell House, including a sale. Later reports said potential buyers reviewed the business but no deal emerged, and Kraft Heinz ultimately decided to keep the brand at that time.

The $650 million price is well below the figures that circulated in 2019, when CNBC's report suggested a sale could fetch at least $3 billion and a later New York Post report said Kraft Heinz was seeking about $2.5 billion.

Kraft Heinz had also been investing in the plant. In May 2025, the company confirmed to the Jacksonville Daily Record that the Bay Street facility was part of a $3 billion program to upgrade its U.S. manufacturing plants.

The Kraft Heinz breakup that wasn't

The coffee sale comes after a year of strategic turns at Kraft Heinz. In September 2025, the company announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies. Under that plan, Maxwell House would have gone to a grocery focused company with slower selling brands such as Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables, while Heinz and Philadelphia cream cheese would have anchored the other.

Cahillane, a former Kellogg chief who led a similar breakup there in 2023, became Kraft Heinz's CEO on Jan. 1, 2026. In February he paused the split, saying "many of our challenges are fixable and within our control," and the company committed $600 million to marketing, sales and product development, the Associated Press reported. The company's latest quarterly filing still describes the separation as paused.

Selling the coffee business lets Kraft Heinz reduce debt and narrow its focus without the full breakup. Keeping a 30% stake gives it a share of any upside if One Rock grows the brands.

What it means for Jacksonville

For Jacksonville, the immediate news is that the plant is part of the sale rather than being closed, and that its workforce is expected to move with the business. Neither company has announced changes to operations at the Bay Street plant, and News4JAX did not report any planned layoffs.

The longer term question is what a new majority owner will do with a century old factory on downtown land. With the Jacksonville plant as the last U.S. Maxwell House site, its output is central to the brand's American business.

What's next

The deal must win regulatory approval and meet other customary conditions before it closes, which Kraft Heinz expects in mid-2027. Until then, the Jacksonville plant remains part of Kraft Heinz. Employees, city leaders and downtown neighbors will be watching for any word from One Rock about its plans for the plant once the sale is complete.