Keurig’s single-serve coffee empire in jeopardy, analysts say

[marmar]

(MarketWatch) Shares of Keurig Green Mountain fell nearly 30% Thursday after the company reported plunging sales of its at-home brewers, a disappointing outlook and a proposed fix that one analyst said offered “telling” signs of a company struggling to turn around its business.

While Keurig GMCR still believes it can reach long-term earnings goals despite vastly underperforming expectations last quarter, Stifel analyst Mark Astrachan disagrees.

The analyst reduced his earnings estimates for fiscal 2015, 2016 and 2017 and said slowing sales for hot coffee brewers, worsening margins and “considerable questions” surrounding Keurig Kold, the company’s SodaStream SODA rival expected to hit stores shelves in October, will “likely result in continued underperformance” of Keurig’s stock.

.....(snip).....

Keurig’s attempt at a multiyear fix did little to offset these concerns. The plan includes merging Keurig’s U.S. and Canadian businesses and cutting 5% of workforce to save $100 million in costs this year and $300 million over the next three years. ...........(more)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/keurigs-turnaround-plan-a-telling-sign-of-a-floundering-business-analysts-say-2015-08-06?dist=lcountdown

[marble falls]

1. Try coming up with a plan that doesn't involve landfilling millions of plastic cups. As for .....

Soda Stream:

http://sodastreamboycott.org/

[FrodosPet]

2. Here's one environmentally responsible solution

[marble falls]

10. My absolute favorite. Though a triple shot mocha really hits the spot one a week or so.

[Vinca]

18. Exactly. Cheaper, tastier and doesn't involve plastic waste.

[spinbaby]

4. Not to mention it makes nasty coffee

My son has one of these and I find it makes nasty, acidic coffee even when I use coffee I like when it's made in a drip coffee maker. Plus, it's a really expensive way to make coffee.

[packman]

5. I have a Sodastream so I had to go to the site

Reason for boycott:

"... SodaStream manufactures these machines within an Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian territory. These settlements are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace. We choose not to partake in supporting this unethical enterprise and ask consumers and stores to join us."

OK- off the kitchen counter into the pantry with the breadmaker, hot dog cooker, and mini-muffin cooker.

[surrealAmerican]

6. Since you already own the machine ...

... you should know this: they can be adapted to use paintball tanks, instead of the proprietary tanks. It's also way less expensive for the gas that way.

[packman]

7. You may not be aware , but many stores - TARGET, for example

have a turn in system. True, the first tank was rather expensive. However, you can return an empty tank, in my case to Target, and get a refill for about 1/4 the cost of a new tank.

To tell you the truth, I never liked the coffee taste but the convenience was too much to ignore. I have one of those plunge-type and I consider them a pain in the ass. As for a carafe, I disliked the clean up and the wasted coffee to be thrown out - the tarry, crap left at the end of the day. Guess I will drink anything that looks like coffee as long as it has caffeine in it.

[surrealAmerican]

8. This is what we had been doing ...

... before getting a paintball tank adapter. The refills for the original tanks cost us about 4 times as much as the refills for a paintball tank. CO2 is cheap.

I never actually used a Keurig. We make drip coffee in a thermal carafe.

[sufrommich]

13. This.Stupid and wasteful. Right up there with throw

away plastic water bottles.

[marble falls]

15. I use them in my painting classes. I must have 200 of them. I was on a test where they ....

gave me beta machine for two weeks and more coffee than you could shake a stick at. The cups were a wierd size and a different type of plastic - thicker and harder. When my wife got "me" the new machine I hacked a way to use all those beta coffee pods into a regular pod.

[WillowTree]

20. Don't use the K-cups.

I have one of the Keurigs that pre-dates the ones that will only take the proprietary K-cups so I have an adapter and a bunch of these cute little filter baskets which I use with my favorite coffee from the grocery store. In a normal week, I only make three travel cups of coffee anyway and not having to wash a pot every time is just too convenient It's way cheaper, I like the coffee better and I'm not filling the landfills with those horrid little plastic cups.

[Igel]

3. It's my wife's fault.

It's guaranteed that the best sign that a trend has levelled and is about to take a nosedive is having my wife hop on board.

If I also hop on board at about the same time, the nosedive will be so steep as to produce sonic booms.

In June she bought a Keurig coffee maker. A couple of weeks later, I decided I liked it and started using it. (And immediately bought one of the reusable "cups".)

[marble falls]

12. My wife got "me" one for Christmas and we both use the reusables. It still seem an expensive way....

make mediocre cups of tea and coffee. I still grind and French press after she goes somewhere.

[alarimer]

9. Their new machine had DRM so you could not use other pods with them.

I'm not sure how it worked, exactly, but it didn't allow for non-Keurig pods to be used, which I'm sure is why people kept the old ones instead of buying the news. But how many coffee machines do people need anyway? They replace them when they break, but not usually because of new features or whatever, like a phone.

[Dr. Strange]

21. Yep.

They shot themselves in the foot with the DRM thing.

[shanti]

11. meh

who needs a keurig? my little 4 cup drip coffeemaker does just fine for one cup a day.

[MineralMan]

14. Coffee makers have a short market life. Then they are replaced by

some other coffee-making method and a new fad is born.

I've never been tempted by this type of coffee-maker. I've had coffee from one, and didn't find it any more worthwhile than what comes out of my drip and vacuum-bottle carafe.

Personally, my favorite coffee comes from an old 1950s stovetop Silex vacuum coffee-maker, but it's such a pain in the ass to use, that I rarely brew in it. That fad has come and gone, but you can still buy this type of coffee maker from Bodum. Here's what my Silex is like:

[JCMach1]

16. they are the Crocs of Coffee, everyone that wants one, has one

everyone else realizes what a wasteful joke they are...


Actually, Crocs are probably more useful than a Keurig and probably taste better.

[maxsolomon]

19. I've had 1 pair of Crocs for around 15 years.

They're phenomenally useful as backyard shoes or water shoes, and surprisingly comfortable. Utilitarian.

Keurig makes compostable cups (you can get them at Costco), so they do have the ability to pull their heads out of their asses.

[JCMach1]

24. I have a faithful pair of Croc open-toed sandals that have lasted about 10 yrs. now...

I don't even think they make them anywhere, but they are the best garden and beach sandals EVAH!

[1939]

17. Having worked many years in offices

where the standard was the large electric percolator, my coffee taste buds have been totally shot (a real man can handle the 3:30PM last cup). Not having a secretary to make the coffee any more, I appreciate the convenience of my Keurig.

[hobbit709]

22. That's what happens when you sell crappy over-priced coffee in proprietary containers.

[olddots]

23. this product is like a coke spoon

n.t.