Keurig Green Mountain coffee prices are set to go up 9 percent staring Nov. 3. The increase will apply to all portion packs sold by Keurig for use in its brewing systems and on all its traditional bagged and bulk coffee products.
The Waterbury-based company said in a press release the price hike responds to increased costs of green coffee and cocoa, plus the rising expense of packaging materials, energy and transportation costs.
Over the past year, green coffee prices have increased more than 50 percent, the company said. Higher green coffee costs raised some concerns about diluted profits during the publicly traded company’s quarterly conference call with analysts earlier in August.
John Whoriskey, president of U.S. Sales and Marketing at Keurig, said in the price hike announcement that competitors already have implemented similar increases.
“We understand that consumers have many beverage options, and we will continue to innovate and price competitively to win consumers’ business,” Whoriskey said.
Keurig is still traded under its traditional ticker symbol, GMCR, which originally stood for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. GMCR completed its acquisition of the brewing system maker Keurig in 2006.
It’s now lining up two new equipment product launches.
A “2.0” hot brewing system will bring the product beyond single-serve into higher volume brewing systems. A cold-brewing system will dovetail with the core business of its 16 percent shareholder, Coca-Cola.
