Keurig Green Mountain and Coca-Cola Expand Hot Brewing System Agreement
04 Sep 2014 --- Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., (Keurig) (GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee, coffee makers, teas and other beverages with its innovative brewing technology, and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) have expanded the companies’ innovative partnership to offer select beverages from the portfolio of The Coca-Cola Company’s still brands in the Keurig hot brewing system in the United States and Canada.
Honest Tea, the nation’s #1 organic bottled iced tea, will be the first brand from The Coca-Cola Company available in K-Cup packs.
In February 2014, the companies signed a 10-year agreement to collaborate on the development and introduction of The Coca-Cola Company's global brand portfolio for use in Keurig’s forthcoming Keurig Cold at-home beverage system, available in Keurig’s fiscal year 2015. As part of that agreement Coca-Cola acquired a 10% minority equity position in Keurig and subsequently announced its intention to increase its stake up to 16%.
“As we began to collaborate with The Coca-Cola Company on the development of their brands for our Keurig Cold system, the opportunity to incorporate certain Coca-Cola brands, like Honest Tea, into our Brew Over Ice selections for our Keurig hot brewing system became an exciting possibility,” said Mark Wood, Senior Vice President, Global Hot Systems at Keurig. “Whether hot or cold, adding great brands like Honest Tea to the Keurig system is a part of our ongoing mission to provide consumers with unparalleled choice and variety.”
Available to consumers in the U.S. tomorrow on Keurig.com, the new Honest Tea K-Cup packs feature two products initially, unsweetened Just Green and Just Black iced teas. The new beverages will join Keurig’s current Brew Over Ice collection, a line specially crafted to brew hot beverages over ice with the Keurig hot brewing system, making it easy and convenient to get a refreshing iced beverage at home or in the office.
“There is growing consumer demand for beverage variety and functionality,” said Deryck Van Rensburg, President, Coca-Cola/Keurig Ventures. “Offering people more of the brands they love in the popular Keurig hot brewing system is a natural extension of our strategic partnership while development of our sparkling and still brands for the innovative Keurig Cold at-home system continues.” The Honest Tea K-Cup packs, like all of the brand’s teas, will be organic certified using Fair Trade Certified tea. Founded in 1998, Honest Tea was the first brand to launch organic bottled tea and fair trade bottled tea.
“Keurig Green Mountain and Honest Tea share a longstanding commitment to organics and fair trade,” said Seth Goldman, Honest Tea co-founder and TeaEO. “We’re excited to make our tea available in this new convenient format.”
Keurig hot system brewers use innovative brewing technology to deliver a fresh-brewed, perfect single cup of hot or brewed over ice coffee, tea, cocoa, or fruit brews every time at just the touch of a button. With the launch of the next generation Keurig 2.0 brewer, consumers are able to brew both a single cup and a carafe of coffee from a Keurig brand pack. With Keurig 2.0 brewing systems, consumers continue to get the same Keurig quality, simplicity and beverage choice they expect with more than 50 brands and more than 290 beverage varieties currently available, all brewed with Keurig’s new beverage-optimizing brewing technology.
