Distant Lands Trading Company, which has a Tyler division, has been acquired by Japanese beverage firm Ito En for a reported $82 million. A corporate spokesperson said the Tyler operation is an important part of the company’s future.

“Our company has welcomed Distant Lands Trading Company into the Ito En Group as a long term goal to enhance and maximize the mutual value of our businesses here in the United States and abroad,” said Rona Tison, the company’s senior vice president for corporate relations. “Both companies share the high quality standards with our sustainable tea and coffee farms, as well as production and packaging processes of our products. Our ultimate goal is to expand our customer base and bring the best quality products to the consumer. We consider the Tyler operation very important in achieving this strategic goal.”

Distant Lands and Ito En are both “vertically oriented” companies. That means they own and operate much of their supply chains. Distant Lands has coffee farms and processors in Costa Rica and Columbia and roasting facilities in Tyler and in Washington State.

Distant Lands sells its own brand of coffee but also supplies coffee to other retailers and food service companies,including McDonald’s.

The company built its current 66,000-square-foot, $2.5 million facility off Texas Highway 64 just west of Loop 323 in 2003. Four years later, Distant Lands bought Java Trading Co., a Seattle-based roaster.

Some 500,000 pounds of beans are roasted and shipped weekly at the Tyler facility. The Seattle roaster does about the same volume.

Most recently, Distant Lands started Tazza Pronto, a division to manufacture the popular single-serve coffee capsules. That division has exceeded even the most optimistic forecasts, producing an estimated 100 million capsules in its first 12 months.

According to an Ito En news release, the Tokyo-based company’s North American subsidiary has acquired 100 percent of Distant Lands shares, making Distant Lands a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Ito En already has a number of tea brands, including Teas’ Tea, Oi Ocha and Matcha Love. Its first foray into coffees was the launch of Jay Street Coffee in 2013. Distant Lands will help build Ito En’s share of the lucrative coffee market.

“For the Ito En group, the acquisition will enable it to reinforce the sales in North America, benefiting from DLTC’s sales networks and relationships with its customers, and to offer products with wide selection of drinking format,” the release said. “Ito En strongly believes that this acquisition will enable us to continue to grow the overseas business primarily in North America toward our vision of becoming a global tea company, which contributes to better lifestyles of customers through our tea products.”

Distant Lands currently employs about 200 people full time in Tyler.

Twitter: @tmt_roy