Keurig Green Mountain’s new cold brewing system won’t be available in all its retail outlets until next year, a slower schedule than investors had been expecting.
Though the Keurig Kold product will be sold online and in certain stores starting this fall, it won’t spread to the full retail channel until the 2016 holiday season, chief executive officer Brian Kelley said during a webcast on Thursday. The retail introduction will begin after the online one, he said.
Keurig’s new machine is an attempt to boost sales and compete with drink makers such as SodaStream. The product is slated to make cold beverages in eight-ounce portions and chill them to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (about 3.9 degrees Celsius). It will be able to create seltzers, teas and cocktail mixers.
The shares fell as much as 5.9 per cent to $96.98 in late trading after the announcement. The company had already lost 22 per cent this year through Thursday’s close, in part because of concern that the Keurig Kold rollout would be delayed.
The company also cut its annual profit forecast last week after sales of its hot brewer slowed. Americans have been slow to adopt the new Keurig 2.0, which allows people to brew a whole carafe of coffee at one time. That earnings report sent the stock plummeting 9.2 per cent the next day.
Kelley said last week that the Kold isn’t behind schedule and that it will be sold starting this fall.
“There has been no change in the date in terms of when we’re launching,” he said at the time. “There is not a delay.”
Coca-Cola has backed Keurig’s new machine with an investment. Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said in April that the cold brewer could take off even faster than Keurig’s original hot machine. Kent again endorsed the product on Thursday’s webcast.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
