Soda In A Pod? Coke Buys Stake In Green Mountain Coffee To Make Its Dreams Come True

The thing about bandwagons is that anyone can hop on’em. You just need to have the right resources and the wherewithal to hitch yourself up there. Coca-Cola just bought what it needs to join the single-serving pod revolution, snapping up a 10% stake in Green Mountain Coffee so it can start working on its own system for making cold drinks at home.

Coca-Cola announced that it’s snapped up the stake for about $1.25 billion and will now be working with the coffee company that makes Keurig brewers to develop a system that will instead brew up single-serving cold drinks.

That could be Coke, but also likely all the company’s other offerings will have a chance too, from Fanta to Sprite, notes Bloomberg News.

“With The Coca-Cola Company as a global strategic partner in our multi-brand at-home Keurig Cold beverage system, we believe there is significant opportunity to premiumize and accelerate growth in the cold beverage category by empowering consumers with an innovative, convenient way to freshly prepare their favorite cold beverages at the push of a button,” said Brian P. Kelley, President and CEO of GMCR in a joint statement from the two companies.

It’s probably a pretty good move for Coca-Cola, which has been trying to keep up with consumers who are turning away from soda toward other drinks like iced coffee or energy drinks.

The companies will join forces to develop the new cold brewer which will be sold starting later this year. Green Mountain will also produce and sell Coca-Cola branded pods to go with the machines, but it will also partner with other companies to sell other pods for the Keurig cold, Green Mountain CEO Brian Kelley said in a conference call this week.

“We will have a number of partners and a number of brands on the system,” he said, without revealing what those other brands might be.

Coca-Cola to Buy 10% Stake in Green Mountain Coffee [Bloomberg]

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