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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 »
Diet Pepsi has introduced a new “skinny” can for Fashion Week, but some critics are giving it a big, fat “no.”
The can is a “taller, sassier” version of the traditional can that the company says was made in “celebration of beautiful, confident women.” Some say Pepsi’s approach only reinforces dangerous stereotypes about women and body image. Get the full story »
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 »
MillerCoors, the second-largest brewer in the United States, posted a 38 percent rise in fourth-quarter net income, as cost savings and better trends for its premium light brands offset soft industry volumes. Get the full story »
The girlfriend of former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV died at his home after accidentally overdosing on the painkiller oxycodone, the St. Louis County medical examiner said Wednesday. Get the full story »
J.M. Smucker Co., the top U.S. packaged coffeemaker, raised prices for most of its coffee products, including Folgers, in a widely expected move as the cost of beans has soared 85 percent in eight months.
Though this was the third price increase in less than a year by the company known as the trendsetter, many in the industry have wondered how the company managed to wait so long as tight supplies of washed arabica coffee beans have continued to fuel the price rally. Get the full story »
Consumer goods maker Fortune Brands posted a sharply higher quarterly profit that topped Wall Street’s expectations as an improving economy helped spur sales of premium liquor and Titleist golf clubs.
But the conglomerate said sales of its Simonton windows, up at a double-digit rate, were fueled by the expiration of a consumer tax credit for the purchase of energy-efficient home products. As a result, it expects the overall window market to fall at a mid-single-digit rate this year. Get the full story »
Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks will offer customers who don’t like Starbucks Via Ready Brew the option of replacing it with a 12-ounce bag of ground coffee.
Via, launched in 2009, was the first major entry into the U.S. instant coffee market in years. Though the coffee packets generated $135 million in sales in their first year, Starbucks is appealing to a wider audience with an offer: Try it. And if you don’t like it, we’ll replace it with regular coffee.
Starbucks announced the promotion Tuesday morning. It will run through August. In order to score free java, customers unhappy with their Via purchase can print out a form online and mail it in with their original receipt and UPC code. Requests must be postmarked by August 31. Get the full story »
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 »
Sara Lee desserts in a grocer's freezer. (AP)
Downers Grove-based food maker Sara Lee announced Friday that it will divide itself two publicly-traded companies. The plan, which has been approved by Sara Lee’s board, divides the company into North American and European divisions. One company will focus on North American grocery and supplying products to the restaurant industry, and the other on European coffee, tea and bread.
In a call with investors, Marcel Smits, the company’s newly-appointed CEO, acknowledged that Sara Lee had received “unsolicited interest” in buying the company. He said that after a rigorous review, the company’s board determined that splitting the company was in shareholders’ best interest, adding that the individual companies are likely to do better on their own.
Sara Lee will issue a $3 special dividend to shareholders as part of the split. Get the full story »
An appellate court tossed out Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature $31 billion construction program, widespread plans for video poker and higher taxes on candy and booze, declaring Wednesday in a ruling that they were unconstitutional.
The justices ruled the problem with the law is that it violated the state’s basic constitutional tenet that legislation must address a single subject only. They wrote that wide-ranging issues in one of four bills passed in 2009 failed to have a “natural and logical connection.”
The decision knocked out all four laws that represented the backbone of the public works program Quinn put together with bipartisan support two years ago. It was the culmination of an effort with legislative leaders who had found working with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich futile. Get the full story »
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 »
Walgreen Co. has quietly rolled out a private label brew. The product, Big Flats 1901, will carry a suggested retail price of $2.99 for a six-pack of cans and $11.49 for a 24-pack, the company said.
It will be the private label beer for Deerfield-based Walgreens in states where it’s allowed. Prices may vary by region. The chain began selling the beer in mid-December and it’s now available in more than 4,000 locations, a company spokesman said. Get the full story »
U.S. consumers started drinking more higher-end spirits last year, leading the industry to see signs of a fragile recovery.
Liquor companies sold 190.7 million nine-liter cases in the United States in 2010, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States trade group. That was up 2 percent from 2009, when a recession crimped consumers’ drinking habits. Get the full story »
Anheuser-Busch said Friday it will feature five commercials in the broadcast of the 2011 Super Bowl.
The brewer also announced that it will be the exclusive beer advertiser for the Super Bowl for the 23rd consecutive year. Get the full story »
