Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. And Kraft Foods Group, Inc. Announce Licensing Agreement
WATERBURY, Vt. & NORTHFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Keurig Green Mountain, Inc., (Keurig) (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee, coffee makers, teas and other beverages with its innovative brewing technology, and Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT), one of North America's largest consumer packaged food and beverage companies, announced a multi-year licensing, manufacturing, and distribution agreement for Kraft's branded coffees in Keurig® portion pack formats compatible with Keurig® consumer and commercial brewing systems in the U.S. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"We hear time and time again that consumers consistently choose the Keurig brewing system for the quality, simplicity, value, and, most importantly, the variety of brands and beverages available in the system," said Brian Kelley, Keurig's President and CEO. "Adding Kraft's celebrated brands to the licensed Keurig family means Keurig consumers will be able to enjoy even more beverages they know and love with the quality and consistency they expect from their Keurig brewer."
"At Kraft, we have made significant strides in rejuvenating our coffee business across all segments - including mainstream, premium and on-demand - by focusing on driving profitable growth for our brands and our customers," said Dino Bianco, Kraft's Executive Vice President and President, Beverages. "This agreement offers the opportunity for expanded distribution across multiple channels, and is another example of our focus on long-term growth in action."
With this new agreement, consumers in the U.S. can enjoy their favorite Kraft coffee brands, Maxwell House®, Gevalia® and Yuban®, along with McCafé®, in a variety of licensed Keurig portion pack formats for both the at-home and away-from-home channels including:
- K-Cup® packs: brew the perfect cup of coffee, for use in Keurig K-Cup® Single Cup Brewers, the forthcoming Keurig 2.0 Brewing System, and available through Keurig Authorized Distributors for away-from-home channels.
- K-Carafe™ pack: a single portion pack optimized to brew four cups of coffee into a specially designed Keurig® carafe, exclusively for use in the Keurig 2.0 Brewing System.
- Keurig Bolt™ pack: a single portion pack containing the right amount of coffee to brew a high-quality, fresh half-gallon pot of coffee from a single pack; exclusive for use in the Keurig® BOLT™ Carafe Brewing System and ideally suited for large office and food service locations.
Kraft offers an assortment of mainstream and premium coffee varieties and flavors, each with its own rich history spanning centuries of coffee excellence.
- Originally invented in 1892, Maxwell House coffees are expertly roasted to always stay "Good to the Last Drop."
- Refining the art of luxurious coffee since 1853, Gevalia Kaffe is made with carefully selected beans - ground extra fine - to produce a rich, never bitter coffee experience, inspired by 150 years of Swedish coffee-crafting expertise.
- Created in 1905 and expertly roasted in California for the last 60 years, Yuban coffee delivers a distinctive signature taste preserved by sealing in the freshness of coffee beans known for their superior quality and rich aroma.
- McDonald's and Kraft announced a collaboration to expand the manufacture, marketing and distribution of the McDonald's McCafé brand in grocery stores nationwide. Made with 100% Arabica beans, McCafé packaged coffees will allow consumers to enjoy the McCafé experience at home.
Keurig licensed Kraft-branded portion packs will begin to launch in fall 2014. Initially, both Kraft and Keurig will handle manufacturing for single-serving pods. Following a planned transition period, Keurig will become the exclusive manufacturer of Kraft-branded Keurig® packs using coffee sourced, roasted, and blended by Kraft.
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 imminent launch of the next generation Keurig 2.0 Brewer, Keurig® consumers will be able to brew both a single cup and a carafe of coffee from a Keurig® brand pack. Consumers also will 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.
About Kraft Foods Group
Kraft Foods Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT) is one of North America's largest consumer packaged food and beverage companies, with annual revenues of more than $18 billion. The company's iconic brands include Kraft, Oscar Mayer, Velveeta, Planters, Philadelphia, Maxwell House, Lunchables, Capri Sun, Kool-Aid and Jell-O. Kraft's 22,500 employees in the U.S. and Canada have a passion for making the foods and beverages people love. Kraft is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 and the NASDAQ-100 indices. For more information, visit www.kraftfoodsgroup.com and www.facebook.com/kraft.
Kraft Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "focuses," "seeks," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Kraft's coffee business growth, the launch of certain products and production of certain products. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Kraft's control. Important factors that affect Kraft's business and operations and that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, increased competition; Kraft's ability to maintain, extend and expand its reputation and brand image; Kraft's ability to differentiate its products from other brands; increasing consolidation of retail customers; changes in relationships with significant customers and suppliers; Kraft's ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; Kraft's ability to drive revenue growth in its key product categories, increase its market share, or add products; volatility in commodity, energy and other input costs; changes in Kraft's management team or other key personnel; Kraft's geographic focus in North America; changes in regulations; legal claims or other regulatory enforcement actions; product recalls or product liability claims; unanticipated business disruptions; Kraft's ability to complete or realize the benefits from potential acquisitions, alliances, divestitures or joint ventures; Kraft's indebtedness and ability to pay such indebtedness; disruptions in information technology networks and systems; Kraft's inability to protect intellectual property rights; weak economic conditions; tax law changes; the tax treatment of Kraft's spin-off from Mondelez International, Inc.; volatility of market-based impacts to post-employment benefit plans; pricing actions; and other factors. For additional information on these and other factors that could affect Kraft's forward-looking statements, see Kraft's risk factors, as they may be amended from time to time, set forth in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Kraft disclaims and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this press release, except as required by applicable law or regulation.
About Keurig Green Mountain, Inc.
As a leader in specialty coffee, coffee makers, teas and other beverages, Keurig Green Mountain (Keurig) (NASDAQ: GMCR), is recognized for its award-winning beverages, innovative Keurig® brewing technology, and socially responsible business practices. The Company has inspired consumer passion for its products by revolutionizing beverage preparation at home and in the workplace. Keurig supports local and global communities by investing in sustainably-grown coffee and by its active involvement in a variety of social and environmental projects. By helping consumers drink for themselves, we believe we can brew a better world. For more information visit: www.KeurigGreenMountain.com. To purchase Keurig® products visit: www.Keurig.com or www.Keurig.ca.
Keurig routinely posts information that may be of importance to investors in the Investor Relations section of its website, www.KeurigGreenMountain.com, including news releases and its complete financial statements, as filed with the SEC. The Company encourages investors to consult this section of its website regularly for important information and news. Additionally, by subscribing to the Company's automatic email news release delivery, individuals can receive news directly from Keurig as it is released.
Keurig Green Mountain Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information in this press release constitutes "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They often include words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends," "plans," "seeks" or words of similar meaning, or future or conditional verbs, such as "will," "should," "could," "may," "aims," "intends," or "projects." However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These statements may relate to: the expected impact of raw material costs and our pricing actions on our results of operations and gross margins, expected trends in net sales and earnings performance and other financial measures, the expected productivity and working capital improvements, the success of introducing and producing new product offerings, the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations, the adequacy of internally generated funds and existing sources of liquidity, such as the availability of bank financing, the expected results of operations of businesses acquired by us, our ability to issue debt or additional equity securities, our expectations regarding purchasing shares of our common stock under the existing authorizations, projections of payment of dividends, the impact of the inquiry initiated by the SEC and any related litigation or additional governmental inquiry or enforcement proceedings, and the impact of any pending or future antitrust litigation. A forward-looking statement is neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances, and those future events or circumstances may not occur. Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our Company's historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in Part II, "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the thirteen weeks ended March 29, 2014, and Part II "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our fiscal 2013 Annual Report filed on Form 10-K, as amended, and elsewhere in those reports and those described from time to time in our future reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
