After cornering the market on the single-serve cup of coffee, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. is now launching its first Keurig machine to brew a full pot of coffee using a single pod.
The BOLT Carafe Brewing System, coming this fall, uses a larger version of a K-Cup pod to make an eight-cup pot of coffee in about two minutes. Although designed mainly for offices, Green Mountain said it might eventually introduce a consumer in-home version.
This bold move is intended to help the company diversify and regain growth momentum as it loses market share of its single-serve K Cups to private-label offerings since its patent on the design recently expired. Currently, 90 percent of Green Mountain Coffee sales are derived from the single-serve K Cups, primarily sold to home users.
Green Mountain Coffee’s CEO Brian Kelley, formerly a Coca-Cola Co. executive, is squarely focused on expanding into new products and regions, particularly emphasizing outside-the-home segments such as foodservice and office services, which he estimates at a $10 billion opportunity, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Although Keurig is not first to market with full-pot ready-to-brew pouches, Green Mountain said its design is the first to use the pressurized brewing system, which made its single-serve system such a success.
Single-serve coffee pods represent about a third of ground-coffee sales by value, according to Nielsen data, but 65 percent of office coffee is still brewed by the pot, according to the National Coffee Association.
“It’s basically a giant version of a single-serve solution,” Marc Riddick, consumer analyst at Williams Capital Group, told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s an interesting line extension, but it’s a natural one. It allows them to compete in a whole new segment.”
