Anyone who has ever had to slug it through a work day without a “cuppa Joe” to make the bleakness of life a little brighter knows the true, shinning value of a cup of coffee.
Luckily, most offices have realized that employees are overall more effective human beings when given a constant supply of caffeine.
In fact, the Office Coffee Service Market in the US is actually posting pretty significant growth, with a projected CAGR of 6.2 percent from 2013-2018.
“The coffee machine is considered an important investment by employers. This is a service that is considered to enhance employee productivity, and many employees view high-quality office coffee as an important workplace perk.” – Quote from lead TechNavio analysts. Otherwise known as understatement of the year.
Office coffee comes in many formats, some better than others. There’s the much-derided instant coffee, tolerable fresh brewed coffee, fancy espresso machines and the ultimate in brewing—the single-cup coffee brewer.
Single-cup brewers like Keurigs are becoming somewhat of a holy grail in the office coffee world. So many different flavors and types of coffee, all prepared by the cup put these machine miles ahead of poor old Mr. Coffee.
They’re in such demand that single-cup brewers are actually expected to boost the overall office coffee service market during the forecast period. The revenue a vendor generates from single-cup brewers is relatively high compared to pour-over, plumbed-in, or automatic thermal brewers and customers are willing to pay the premium price because of the ease of operation and convenience offered by this kind of brewing.
Keurig is King of the Single-cup Brew
It sort of goes without saying that the single-cup brewer market in the US is dominated by Green Mountain’s Keurig, with an estimated market share of 46.2 percent in 2013.
Keurig’s business model relies heavily on the fact that the coffee pods used by the machine are patented and include a special barcode. Manufacturers who want to get on the Keurig gravytrain have to license their products, giving Keurig Green Mountain a cut of the profits.
There have been a number of legal (thanks to patent expirations) knockoff K-cups on the market for a while now. But the recent unveiling of the Keurig 2.0 came with both the promise of bigger, carafe sized portions as well as an announcement from the company that measures have been put in place to ensure only Keurig-approved cups can be used.
The barcodes on the new K-cups will contain specialized ink, the absence of which will results in the machine simply displaying an ‘oops’ message and refusing to make that much-needed cup of coffee.
However, according to a release from Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee, the company has already cracked the code and wants to assure customers that their RealCup brand pods will still work on the next gen Keurig.
TechNavio points out that, try as they might to allay the onslaught of competition, Keurig and its authorized licensees are about to see a whole lot more rivalry as other manufacturers are expected to boost their production of alternative K-cups compatible with Keurig machines.
The huge demand for single-cup coffee (because no one wants to go back to the dark ages of regular drip—or worse, instant—coffee) will drive new players to enter the K-cup market. So many alternatives to the K-cup are expected to bring down price in the near future and boost the sales of private label coffee during the forecast period.
So, happily, the office coffee service market in the US will continue to grow, allowing us to work away in caffeine fueled glee for the rest of the projected period.
