More problems for Green Mountain?
(Reuters) – Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), the world’s biggest coffee chain, on Sunday said it plans to announce a new product for the single-serve market "in the near future."
Analysts long have expected Starbucks, which also sells Via instant coffee packets, to make a more aggressive move into the small, but fast-growing single-cup brewing segment.
Word of its new plan comes as Starbucks is getting ready for the March 1 termination of an agreement by which it provides coffee discs for Kraft Foods Inc’s (KFT.N) Tassimo one-cup home brewer.
Kraft’s Tassimo brewer won some loyal fans with its bells and whistles, but it was bested by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters’ (GMCR.O) generally lower-cost Keurig brewing system that now has a near-monopoly in the single-cup category with roughly 80 percent market share.
More here: Starbucks plans single-serve announcement soon | Reuters.
