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(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 »
(Robert Caplin/Bloomberg News)
Kraft Foods Inc. said Thursday that it raised its U.S. list prices for Maxwell House and Yuban ground coffees by 22 percent and its instant coffee by around 10 percent.
The price hikes, which were effective on Wednesday, marked the company’s fourth coffee price hike in a year and came after arabica coffee futures soared to a 34-year high this month. Get the full story »
Diet Coke is now the No. 2 soft drink, behind Coke. (Coca-Cola)
U.S. sales of Diet Coke overtook those of Pepsi-Cola for the first time in 2010, making the diet soda the No. 2 carbonated soft drink in the country behind Coca-Cola, industry data are expected to confirm Thursday.
Occupying the top two rankings would mark a historic win for Coca-Cola Co. in its decades-old rivalry with PepsiCo Inc., which has seen its market share slip in recent years and is trying to retool its marketing. Get the full story »
PepsiCo Inc has developed a bottle made from plant-based, renewable resources that is fully recyclable, and will start using it in a test program next year.
The company’s new “green” bottle is currently being made from materials such as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. In the future, components for the bottle may include orange and potato peels, oat hulls and other byproducts left over from the company’s food business. Get the full story »
Dr Pepper’s 10-calorie soft drink may debut across the United States by the end of the year due to blockbuster reception in six test cities, the head of Dr Pepper Snapple Group said Monday.
“It’s just blowing our projections away,” Chief Executive Larry Young told the Reuters Global Food & Agriculture Summit. Sales to repeat customers are “stronger than Dr Pepper Cherry when we launched it.” Get the full story »
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 »
US health regulators issued a warning letter to Morton Grove-based health food products manufacturer Lifeway Foods, saying certain products of the company were wrongly marketed as drugs on its website. Get the full story »
Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday that it acquired the remaining stake in Honest Tea for an undisclosed sum, giving the world’s largest soft drinks maker a stronger position in bottled tea.
Coke said Seth Goldman, Honest Tea’s founder and chief executive, will continue to run the business as an independent unit within Coca-Cola, whose tea portfolio has lagged those of rivals such as PepsiCo Inc., whose teas include Lipton and Tazo, and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc., which makes Snapple. Get the full story »
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 »
Sara Lee may be breaking up, but company executives say that will make it much more focused on the business in which it competes.
Chief Executive Marcel Smits laid out Sara Lee’s plans at the Consumer Analysts Conference of New York Tuesday morning to take share from Nestle, the international leader in single-serve coffee.
Single-serve, made from individual pouches brewed in specialized machines, has become the latest battleground for the coffee industry. Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and even retailers such as Wal-Mart are expected to play a crucial role in the U.S. battle. Get the full story »
Chief Beer Officer Greg Hall checks operations at the Goose Island Brewery brewhouse in Chicago. (Michael Tercha/ Tribune)
Chicago-based Goose Island Beer Co. will begin shipping New Hampshire-made Goose Island India Pale Ale this week to serve growing markets on the East Coast.
The company also is testing Honker’s Ale there. It also likely will be made at the New Hampshire facility for the East Coast by spring.
Goose Island began testing its IPA in New Hamphire in September. Get the full story »
Dunkin’ Donuts and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are hooking up to make Dunkin’s coffee available in K-cups for Keurig machines.
Beginning this summer, at participating Dunkin’ cafes in the U.S. and Canada, the K-cups will be sold in 14-packs, available in original, decaf, French vanilla, hazelnut, and Dunkin’ dark. Some cafes will also be selling Keurig brewers. Get the full story »
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 »
PepsiCo will sell its Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice in clear bottles, not the familiar coated-paper cartons, as it tries to take back market share from the Coca-Cola Co. brand Simply Orange.
Tropicana, the largest U.S. orange juice brand, said on Wednesday that clear plastic bottles will replace most of the cartons it has long sold bearing a picture of an orange with a straw stuck in it. Get the full story »
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 »
