Although many private-label brands have moved beyond the “me-too” positioning for which they were once known, the private-label beverage segment still is struggling to keep up with the rest of the beverage market as consumers' needs and wants have evolved.
Licensing agreement will bring Community Coffee K-Cups to market in spring 2015
December 1, 2014
Keurig Green Mountain Inc., Waterbury, Vt., and Community Coffee Co., Baton Rouge, La., announced a multi-year licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreement to bring Community Coffee to Keurig portion-pack formats for consumer and commercial Keurig hot-brewing systems. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
As the chief executive officer of Waterbury, Vt.-based Keurig Green Mountain Inc., Brian Kelley describes his leadership style as challenging and fast-paced but open.
Single-serve coffees offer 30 percent more than other brands, company says
October 10, 2014
Barnie's CoffeeKitchen, Orlando, Fla., launched a new line of Keurig-compatible, single-serve coffees called CupUp. CupUp capsules brew a café-quality cup of coffee with 30 percent more coffee than other brands, the company says.
Shazam Coffee first from Keurig-authorized distributor
October 7, 2014
Waterbury, Vt.-based Keurig Green Mountain Inc. and Brockton, Mass.-based office products dealer W.B. Mason Co. Inc. signed a multi-year agreement to offer W.B. Mason’s Shazam Coffee in K-Cup packs for the Keurig hot-brewing system in away-from-home channels. Shazam will be the first brand to come into the Keurig family from a Keurig-authorized distributor.
High commodity pricing can be a major issue for the beverage industry. However, when premium-priced products are in demand, this challenge becomes less troublesome.
The gourmet coffee market has perked up this year, according to the National Coffee Association of USA Inc. (NCA). Approximately 34 percent of American adults drink gourmet coffee beverages daily, up 3 percentage points from 2013, according to the New York-based association’s “National Coffee Drinking Trends” market research study, which was released in March. Conversely, non-gourmet coffee drinking dropped 4 percentage points to 35 percent, it reports.
Portland, Ore.-based Boyd Coffee Co. is launching a new generation of single-serve coffees for single-cup coffee brewers. The new Boyd’s Coffee cups' soft mesh filters use less packaging than the traditional rigid-side cups and also enable coffee drinkers to smell the coffees’ fresh-roasted aromas, the company says.