SEATTLE & WATERBURY, Va. – Starbucks and Green Mountain
Coffee Roasters have signed a new five-year agreement that expands
their current partnership for the manufacturing, marketing, distribution and
sale of Starbucks- and Tazo-branded single serve packs for use
in GMCR's Keurig single serve brewing systems globally.
Starbucks and GMCR first entered into partnership
in March 2011. Following a successful product launch, Starbucks has
shipped more than 850 million Starbucks coffee K-Cup packs.
The new agreement is “a global single-serve coffee
industry game changer,” according to a press release. Under the new agreement,
Starbucks will add brands and varietals to the Starbucks K-Cup and Vue pack portfolio of offerings
for Keurig single cup brewers, ultimately tripling the number
of Starbucks products and adding brands offered on the
Keurig platform. New brands will include Seattle's Best Coffee,
Torrefazione Italia coffee, Teavana Teas and Starbucks Cocoa.
"Starbucks new agreement with GMCR
strengthens our leadership position in the premium single cup
category, the segment of our industry that has grown nine times faster than the
overall coffee category during the past year and a category that now accounts
for more than 25% of total coffee sales in grocery," said Howard Schultz,
Starbucks chairman, president and CEO.
With expanded availability and distribution, sales of
Starbucks coffee K-Cup packs increased more than 75% in March 2013 over the
previous year. In April, Starbucks coffee K-Cup
packs were named one of the top 10 launches of 2012, according
to Information Resources Inc.