Punch line: Green Mountain Coffee Roaster’s K-cups seem to be everywhere these days. A nice little patent-protected moneymaker for GMCR. That is, until a small company found a way around GMCR’s patents … or at least, thinks that it did.
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Excerpted from Investorsplace. com: “The No-Name Private Company Sticking It to Green Mountain”
Imagine you’re Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
Your Keurig single-cup coffee brewer is wildly successful, and you recently struck deals with Starbucks to carry the Seattle coffee giant’s grounds as exclusive cups for the machine.
Shares of GMCR stock are up 700% since 2009 and have more than doubled since Jan. 1, 2011.
Green Mountain Coffee revenue has increased from about $340 million in fiscal 2007 to a forecast of $2.7 billion for fiscal 2011!
It’s good to be Green Mountain. Right?
Well, now imagine that after all this success at GMCR, a tiny family company in California is moving in on your turf.
Not only is it imitating your ideas — but it actually is using the fancy Keurig machines Green Mountain produces as a selling point!
It would be frustrating. It would be infuriating. But it appears to be completely legal.
Here’s the score:
Rogers Family Co., a coffee roaster and distributor based in Lincoln, Calif., has developed single-cup pods completely compatible with Keurig’s famous coffee brewer.
The closely-held company apparently sidesteps the patent protection of Keurig’s K-Cups because it uses a mesh screen on the bottom of the pots instead of plastic.
Not only does this allow the family-operated business to enter into the booming Keurig market, but it could give Rogers a chance at making a big splash with perhaps the cheapest brew out there.
A 12-pack of Rogers Family’s cups will have a recommended retail price of $6.99 and will be distributed to supermarkets including Costco, Safeway and SuperValu.
By contrast, Dunkin’ Donuts branded K-Cups sell for $11.99 per 12-pack.
Not likely that Green Mountain will take this one sitting down.
Cue the patent attorneys … this one’s not over.
The Homa Files 