"The combo thrived during the COVID lockdown as the new Keurig Dr Pepper deployed AI to parse data flowing from in-home brewers to detect early on that families were rushing to stockpile K-Pods in the stay-at-home economy. That detective work hinted that the trend would soon spread to soft drinks. So KDP stockpiled cans and ramped production of its best-selling Dr Pepper and Canada Dry brands while rivals were short of packaging and capacity."
"In Q2, soft drink revenues leaped 10.7% over the same period last year, while U.S. coffee fell 1.9% and the international "hot" side dipped 3.8%, a blend that held total sales gains in the quarter to 5.5%. The reason for coffee downer: A big jump in the price of beans is hiking K-Pod prices and depressing volumes as customers shift to cheaper bagged ground and instant options."
In 2018 Keurig Green Mountain merged with Dr Pepper Snapple for nearly $19 billion, combining hot and cold beverages under one company. During the COVID lockdown Keurig Dr Pepper deployed AI to parse data from in-home brewers and detected families stockpiling K-Pods, which signaled rising soft-drink demand and prompted KDP to stockpile cans and ramp production. Soft-drink sales surged while coffee sales declined as rising bean prices increased K-Pod costs and shifted consumers to bagged ground and instant coffee. Q2 results showed strong soft-drink growth but U.S. and international coffee declines. KDP announced plans to split the coffee and soft-drink franchises and to acquire JDE Peet's.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]