Just weeks after losing its contract to distribute Starbucks coffee in grocery stores, Northfield-based Kraft Foods announced that it is prepping a successor, Gevalia. Get the full story »
Starbucks
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Study: McDonald’s winning coffee loyalty battle
Coffee cups at the McDonald's restaurant at Fullerton & Central in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Fickle coffee drinkers are most loyal to a purveyor better known for burgers, a new study found. Coffee customers of McDonald’s Corp., said they were more loyal to the home of the Big Mac than those who frequent Starbucks Corp. and Dunkin’ Donuts in a study by market research firm CustomersDNA LLC.
The as-yet unpublished study involved 15,000 fast-food customers who were asked about their coffee and breakfast-buying habits, only 29 percent of McDonald’s customers said they go to a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee or breakfast in a given month. Get the full story »
Starbucks maps out plan to conquer grocery aisles
Starbucks Corp. coffee on a shelf at a grocery store in New York. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Starbucks Corp. wants to make sales of its coffee and other products in the grocery aisle rival its traditional cafe business, according to Chief Executive Howard Schultz.
The world’s biggest coffee chain is betting it can use the power of its brand to sell a portfolio of goods — such as Via instant coffee and bottled Frappuccino — everywhere food and beverages are sold, whether in a supermarket in the United States or a vending machine in Asia. Get the full story »
Starbucks raises grocery packaged coffee prices
(Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Starbucks raised its price for grocery packaged coffee on Friday by 12 percent, on average, due to still climbing coffee commodity prices.
The increase affects both Starbucks and Seattle’s Best Coffee brands and is the company’s first price increase on grocery packaged coffee since March 2008. Get the full story »
Starbucks takes next big step into single-serve
Starbucks Coffee Co., the Seattle-based coffee giant, has entered into an agreement with Waterbury, Vt.-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters for the manufacture, distribution and sale of Starbucks and Tazo tea-branded K-Cups. Green Mountain holds patents on K-Cups, used to make drinks on the Keurig, and owns the single-serve machines.
Starbucks and Tazo K-Cups will be available in grocery and club stores, Starbucks cafes and department stores. Starbucks will also begin selling the Keurig brewers in store. Get the full story »
Starbucks wins Kraft appeal over coffee deal
Packages of Starbucks coffee lined up in a supermarket in January 2011. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)
It’s official: Kraft Foods will lose its Starbucks business March 1.
The final legal obstacle was removed to Starbucks ending its coffee distribution agreement with Northfield-based Kraft Foods by a U.S. appeals court ruling Friday.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York affirmed a lower court ruling of Jan. 28, denying Kraft’s request to stop Starbucks from moving ahead with its plan to use a new partner to distribute packaged coffee to supermarkets in North America and Europe.
Kraft and Starbucks Coffee Co. are in the arbitration to decide what the Seattle-based coffee giant must pay to terminate the relationship. Kraft has been fighting in court to maintain control of the Starbucks business until the arbitration has been concluded. Get the full story »
Kraft to court: Loss of Starbucks ‘irreparable’
Kraft Foods Inc. told a federal appeals court Friday that it will suffer “irreparable harm” if its distribution deal with Starbucks Corp. ends next week.
The two consumer products giants are in the midst of ending their 12-year partnership in which Kraft distributed Starbucks bagged coffee to supermarkets and other retailers. Starbucks plans to take on the business starting March 1. Get the full story »
Weak crops push coffee prices to 14-year high
Coffee prices hit a 14-year high this week, and it’s only a matter of time before java lovers will have to pay more in stores and coffee shops.
Coffee futures have doubled in the last year, closing at $2.46 per pound Thursday. That’s the highest price since May 1997, when coffee was trading at $3.20 per pound. Get the full story »
Deal brings Starbucks to hotel rooms
Starbucks announced Tuesday that it will partner with St. Louis-based Courtesy Products to provide its ground coffee in 500,000 hotel rooms in the U.S. and promised that more single-serve news to come.
The announcement follows rampant speculation as to which partner the Seattle-based coffee giant would select for its push into the single-serve coffee market, following a Chicago Tribune report on Sunday. Get the full story »
Report: Starbucks in talks with single-serve leader
Starbucks Corp. and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are in partnership negotiations, a source close to the talks told Reuters on Monday, sending Green Mountain shares surging.
Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, wants to be a big player in the fast-growing single-serve coffee segment that Green Mountain dominates with its Keurig one-cup brewers. Get the full story »
Kraft asks court to reverse Starbucks ruling
Kraft Foods Inc. says the U.S. District Court should reverse its decision to allow Starbucks Corp. to take over distribution of Starbucks’ branded packaged coffee March 1.
The packaged-food giant filed a brief late Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, arguing that Kraft will “suffer loss of customer good will, loss of a unique product line and competitive harm if Starbucks is allowed to unilaterally terminate the contract,” the brief says. Get the full story »
Kraft says court will hear appeal in Starbucks case
Kraft Foods Inc. said an appeals court agreed to hear arguments over whether Starbucks Corp. can proceed with taking over distribution of its bagged coffee as planned on March 1.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday said it would hold an expedited appeal, according to Kraft, which must file its argument by Feb. 9. A final ruling on the appeal could come by the end of the month.
Kraft planned to appeal last Friday’s ruling, where the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a preliminary injunction that would block Starbucks from taking over the distribution from Kraft in just a couple of weeks. Get the full story »
Kraft loses bid to keep distributing Starbucks
A federal judge rejected Kraft Foods’ bid to force Starbucks Corp to keep using Kraft to distribute packaged coffee to supermarkets in North America and Europe, a decision that allows Starbucks to move ahead with a new partner.
In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains, New York, on Friday also noted that Starbucks could end up owing Kraft “a boatload of money” if an arbitrator decided the coffee chain breached a 1998 agreement with Kraft. Get the full story »
Starbucks beats Street, warns that won’t continue
Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee chain, expects rising coffee prices to hit profits more than it previously thought and forecast full-year earnings below analysts expectations.
That news sent its shares down more than 2 percent, even as the company reported profits and U.S. sales that handily topped Wall Street’s targets. Get the full story »
Starbucks letting customers pay with cell phones
Starbucks Corp. will allow customers at U.S. company-operated stores to use some smartphones to pay for their purchases in an effort to drive sales.
Customers with Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry or Apple Inc.’s iPhone or iPod touch will be able to pay using a Starbuck card mobile app at nearly 6,800 company-operated stores and 1,000 Starbucks in U.S. Target Corp. locations. Get the full story »
