STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 31 Positioned for innovation The growth of private label coffee sales also can be attributed to product innovation. While customers look for competitive prices, they also want their coffee to reflect their interests in the environment and sustainability. Private label manufacturers are positioned to respond with innovations that suit both their business customers and consumers. "Innovation is one of the most popular words in the private brand space, but cof- fee is a little more challenging," Dockery says. "I would say that (private label products) have been leading innovation recently but I see the gap narrowing. The big brands have come to the realization that they have to be nimble." For example, he says, a major brand may produce a "limited time only" product as way to quickly get a new idea on store shelves. "The line has blurred quite a bit over the past several years," he says. Single-serve products – cups, pods, and espresso capsules – are an important part of Club Coffee's product line so when customers expressed a need for environmentally friendly materials, Club Coffee developed the PurPod100, a 100% compostable single- serve pod for coffee, tea, and other hot beverages. "We're primarily a private label and co-manufacturing company. That's what we're about," Campanella says of the Canada-based full-line roaster and co-manufacturer. "The advantage for our customer partners is that we're focused on their brands and their needs." Everything in the PurPod100, first introduced in 2015, is plant-based. Even the pod ring is made of coffee bean chaff, a waste product from the roasting process. The pods are certified compostable meaning all materials break down within 90 days once discarded in a commercial composting facility. And, with Club Coffee producing "hun- dreds of millions of pods" each year for its private label customers, Campanella says, the environmental impact is significant. The PurPod100 is certified 100% compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI). "We want to know how we can help our customers achieve their goals," he says. "We put the science behind it to make sure it works. We did the field work." Single-serve pourover Meanwhile, in Southern California, NuZee, Inc., is marketing a single-serve pourover drip cup already popular in Asia. The pourovers filled with 100% arabica grounds, are sold under NuZee's Coffee Blenders and Twin Peaks brands as well as to private label customers. NuZee already has found success in Japan and South Korea with wholly owned subsidiaries there, says Travis Gorney, co-founder, president and c.o.o. They brought that technology to Vista, Calif., and provide services from sourcing and roasting to the final package. The company announced in October that it secured $1.4 million in new equity financing to continue its growth. "We do everything from sourcing the coffee to white labeling and co-packing," Gorney says, explaining that a new, larger production facility is planned in Texas. That expansion will allow NuZee to exceed the current 60-million cup annual capacity in Vista. "The consumer can expect to see this product nationwide at national retailers late in 2019 to the beginning of 2020." The company markets the drip cup as a "craft, quality pourover with anywhere convenience." NuZee is positioned to deliver its products to its more than 20 private label brands for consumers who seek convenience in the kitchen, at an office desk or around a campfire in the wilderness. "We could see a void that needed to be filled," Gorney says. "We're providing very convenient coffee but reducing the [environmental] footprint down to almost nothing. It's going to take more than us to pioneer a new delivery method in a country the size of America but this [pourover method] is going to displace what's going on in single serve. We believe it's going to be the next revolution in single-serve coffee in America." Millennials and online shopping The growth of Amazon's private label AmazonFresh products, including whole bean and ground coffee, underscores opportunities for private labels to reach the digitally driven millennial generation.

• Cover