Your next cup of coffee at a hipster cafe could be made by Nestle

Blue Bottle represents little more than 0.1% of Nestle's annual sales, according to Bernstein's Wood

Blue Bottle Coffee’s founder describes himself as “a slightly disaffected freelance musician and coffee lunatic, weary of the commercial coffee enterprise.” And yet he’s just sold a majority stake to the ultimate commercial coffee enterprise — Nestle, owner of Nespresso and Nescafe.

Such pairings are becoming increasingly common as consumer-product giants like Nestle, Unilever, L’Oreal and Diageo seek growth beyond the stagnating megabrands that underpinned their strategies for decades. Now tiny labels with organic, hipster or ethical credentials are all the rage, and the global behemoths are paying ever more for them.

A recent flurry of deals for niche makers of everything