Tag Archives: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

Analysts Debate: Is Starbucks Still a Top Stock?

By Sean Williams, Travis Hoium, and Alex Planes, The Motley Fool

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The Motley Fool has been making successful stock picks for many years, but we don’t always agree on what a great stock looks like. That’s what makes us “motley,” and it’s one of our core values. We can disagree respectfully, as we often do. Investors do better when they share their knowledge.

In that spirit, we three Fools have banded together to find the market‘s best and worst stocks, which we’ll rate on The Motley Fool’s CAPS system as outperformers or underperformers. We’ll be accountable for every pick based on the sum of our knowledge and the balance of our decisions. Today, we’ll be discussing Starbucks , the world’s largest coffee-shop chain.

Starbucks by the numbers
Here’s a quick snapshot of the company’s most important numbers:

Statistic

Result (TTM or Most Recent Available)

Market cap

$44.3 billion

Price/book

8.5

Price/sales

3.2

Forward P/E

22.6

Cash/debt

$2.46 billion / $0.55 billion

Total stores

18,278

Revenue breakdown (mrq)

Americas: $2.84 billion
Channel Development: $0.38 billion
Europe/Middle East/Africa: $0.31 billion
China/Asia Pacific: $0.21 billion

Competitors

Dunkin’ Brands
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

Sources: Yahoo! Finance, Starbucks 10-Q. mrq = most recent quarter.

Source: Wikimedia commons. 

Sean’s take
There’s not much to say about Starbucks that its first-quarter earnings report in January didn’t already spell out for investors. China is a hot spot of growth, with the China/Asia Pacific region delivering 28% revenue growth, while global same-store sales throughout the remainder of the company remain strong — up 6%, thanks to incredible branding, increase traffic, solid pricing power, and a knack for staying ahead of the innovative curve.

Earlier this week, I broke down Starbucks’ outperformance into three rudimentary building blocks. I saw the company first as an innovator that remodeled and refreshed its stores to make them more inviting and reworked its food line to appeal to healthier eaters.

Next, I envisioned Starbucks as an emulator that saw a concept from another vendor and ran with it. This is what prompted Starbucks to develop its own single-serve brewing and espresso machine known as the Verismo to take on Green Mountain‘s dominant Keurig system, and this is also what drove it to emulate Whole Foods Market by striking deals with local and organic growers to bring more nutritious food choices and drinks into its stores.

Finally, I saw the collaborative side of Starbucks that keeps its friends close and its enemies closer. When Dunkin’ Brands formed a strategic partnership with Green Mountain in February 2011, Starbucks followed suit just weeks later with a partnership of its own with Green Mountain.

Click here if you’d like to read a more thorough analysis of my thoughts on Starbucks, but the simple answer is that yes, it’s a buy, even now. Starbucks is a dominant force in coffee that refuses to be stopped, and there is plenty of room for

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/analysts-debate-is-starbucks-still-a-top-stock/

Coffee Gets a Hot Dose of New Competition

By Andrew Marder, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

The world is getting smaller, or at least more connected. In an odd reversal of business, it seems more and more brands are being consolidated under one big owner — almost the way it was in the early part of the 20th century. Yesterday, another massive company slipped under the waves, when D.E. Master Blenders agreed to sell itself off to Joh. A. Benckiser, or JAB.

Never heard of JAB or Master Blenders, you say? That’s not really surprising, as both are European companies. But even if you don’t know them, you know their work, and with this purchase, you might know their wrath.

The Continental Congress
JAB is a sort of multiheaded beast of an investment arm, which buys and holds companies for the Reimann family. The Reimanns, in turn, are wealthy — about $20 billion net worth  — heirs to a chemical company fortune. JAB is a private investment arm, which works on its own and through three other vehicles:

  • Coty is a majority-owned beauty product company, which produces Calvin Klein, Adidas, and other designer perfumes.
  • Reckitt Benckiser is a home-products company, which manages dozens of brands, including Air Wick, Clearasil, and Old English in the United States.
  • The LABELUX Group owns Jimmy Choo and Bally and focuses on high-end fashion

The most recent buying spree has come from the root company, JAB. In the past year, it has purchased Peet’s Coffee and Tea for $975 million, Caribou Coffee for $340 million, and now Master Blenders for $9.8 billion. In less than one year, the company has amassed a multibillion-dollar global coffee position.

This is where we look out
That’s a good reason to be worried, if you’re an investor in Starbucks or Green Mountain Coffee Roasters or really any major coffee company. Master Blenders‘ main line is a brand called Douwe Egberts, which used to be served in Burger King until the company signed with Seattle’s Best, a Starbucks brand.

So far, JAB has said that it’s not planning to combine the operations of its three new brands. Instead it plans to keep the American coffee shop companies doing their thing, and the European production arm doing its thing. But Master Blenders does have the ability to make pods to go up against Green Mountain and others, and if it wanted to, the company could use that capability to make a move in the American market.

It could also move against Starbucks, by using its European production capabilities to bring new lines to the U.S., or by using its U.S. cafe brands to bring new competition to Starbucks in Europe. No matter what JAB does, it’s almost certainly going to present new challenges for U.S. coffee brands in the future. Investors should watch for any new business lines from JAB and keep an eye out for more acquisitions in the near future.

With Green Mountain as cheap as it’s ever been, many investors are wondering whether

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/13/coffee-gets-a-hot-dose-of-new-competition/

Starbucks: Keeping Its Friends Close and Its Enemies Closer

By Sean Williams, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Anytime I write about Starbucks I only feel it fair to preface my articles by stating that I practically live, eat, and breathe Starbucks coffee. I’ve been ritualistically ordering the same drip coffee from Starbucks for 17 years without waver, and I do a lot of my research in what is now referred to by the dozen-and-a-half baristas here as my “office.” So keep that bias in mind as you read on!

The question I propose to answer today is simple: Is Starbucks a buy at its current levels, given the fact that it’s valued at 31 times trailing earnings, and knowing that restaurants and retailers across the board are struggling to bring in customers with a higher payroll tax and delayed tax refunds taking their toll?

To answer this question, I propose to look into the very heart of Starbucks’ success — in essence, at the innovation, emulation, and collaboration that turned it into the leading coffeehouse you now see today.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Innovation
I’m not certain there’s an investor out there who would question just how valuable CEO Howard Schultz is to the Starbucks franchise. With domestic sales growth floundering in the late 2000s, the reappointment of Schultz to the CEO role was precisely the spark Starbucks needed.

Schultz’s plan encompassed numerous key points to help get Starbucks back on track. These included remodeling and refreshing the inside of many of its retail locations; expanding into high-growth overseas markets like China; and refocusing its menu to include more health-conscious options.

The results have been utterly phenomenal. Starbucks’ free wireless Internet offerings and its mobile payment partnership with Square, as well as its fresh look, have encouraged patrons to stay in its stores longer, occasionally leading to secondary purchases that the company would not have made if that same customer had come and gone just years prior.

In terms of overseas growth, Starbucks is aiming at having 1,500 stores open across 70 cities in China by 2015. Even with China‘s GDP below its 30-year average, the growth in the country’s burgeoning middle class is enough to merit a big international push.

Finally, Starbucks has firmly embraced the move toward supplying more nutritious food and drink options. Starbucks was one of the first coffeehouses to make this move — relying heavily on local growers to supply its all-natural selection — and realized that consumers will pay a premium for healthier food and drink options if those options are perceived to be more nutritious.

Emulation
Starbucks’ innovation is second-to-none in the food service industry… but even it can’t invent everything.

Take Green Mountain Coffee Roasters , for example. The company behind the Keurig single-brew coffee system and individual serving K-Cups bet big on the single-serve market in 2006 when it purchased the remaining 65% stake of Keurig that it didn’t already own for $104.3 million — a hefty price for a still unknown company at the time. That bet, as we’d later …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Announces Fiscal 2013 Second Quarter Reporting Date, Conference

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. Announces Fiscal 2013 Second Quarter Reporting Date, Conference Call and Live Webcast

WATERBURY, Vt.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– GreenMountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NAS: GMCR) , a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers, today announced that the Company plans to announce financial results for its fiscal 2013 second quarter in a press release to be issued following the close of the financial markets on Wednesday, May 8, 2013.

In conjunction with this announcement, the Company will host a conference call with investors and analysts on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. ET. The live conference call will be simultaneously webcast and will be accessible from the events link in the Investor Relations portion of the Company’s website: http://investor.gmcr.com/events.cfm. The webcast will be archived for replay following the conclusion of the live event. Individuals who prefer not to use the internet for either the live call or the replay can call the Investor Services Department at GMCR, (802) 488-2559, to make alternate arrangements to hear the call by telephone live or the replay through Sunday, May 12, 2013.

About Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMCR)

As a leader in specialty coffee and coffee makers, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) (NAS: GMCR) , is recognized for its award-winning coffees, innovative Keurig® single cup brewing technology, and socially responsible business practices. GMCR supports local and global communities by investing in sustainably-grown coffee, and donating a portion of its profits to social and environmental projects.

GMCR routinely posts information that may be of importance to investors in the Investor Relations section of its website, including news releases and its complete financial statements, as filed with the SEC. The Company encourages investors to consult this section of its website regularly for important information and news. Additionally, by subscribing to the Company’s automatic email news release delivery, individuals can receive news directly from GMCR as it is released.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this release, including statements concerning expected performance such as those relating to net sales, earnings, cost savings, acquisitions and brand marketing support, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Generally, these statements may be identified by the use of words such as “may,” …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Hits a Fresh Peak

By Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters continues to defy the skeptics that figured the java giant would be toast after its pertinent K-Cup patents expired seven months ago.

Shares of the company behind the Keurig single-serve coffee platform raced to an all-time high earlier this week, after the analysts at KeyBanc boosted their price target on the shares from $55, to $70. The sunnier outlook for Green Mountain stems from channel checks showing that private label share of the market is not exceeding 10%.

In other words, fears that Green Mountain would suffer at the hands of third-party producers of refills for Keurig brewers, who would flood the market and trigger a price war since patent expiration, have been overblown.

This was never going to play out that way. This isn’t a major drug going off patent with dirt-cheap generics storming the market.

There is still value to having Green Mountain as a partner. Starbucks  remains an active Green Mountain partner, and you don’t get any more premium than the baron of baristas. There are benefits to having Green Mountain as a distributor. Whether it’s the shelf space or the Keurig designation, it isn’t easy to crank out K-Cups just because it’s legal to do so now, without Green Mountain‘s blessing.

Like most stocks hitting new highs earlier this week, Green Mountain couldn’t hold on to its gains as the market weakened after Monday’s peak.

The good news still kept coming.

Keurig was tapped as “Brand of the Year” in the coffee maker category for the second year in a row in the annual Harris Poll EquiTrend Equity Study. The study surveys thousands of consumers to derive brand health assessment.

Yesterday, it was Dougherty & Co. with a positive note on the company, and that’s surprising given that Dougherty & Co. was bullish on the shares until downgrading the stock two months ago.

The upbeat note points to encouraging research from consumer packaged goods tracker SymphonyIRI, showing that, year over year, K-Cup unit sales soared 49.9% in March, snapping a string of decelerating growth in the three previous months.

Despite having its shares more than triple since bottoming out this past summer, Green Mountain isn’t as expensive as its stock chart may suggest. The stock is fetching 19 times this year’s projected earnings, and just 17 times next year’s target. This stacks up nicely against the slower growing Starbucks at 27 times this year’s earnings, and a multiple of 22 looking out to fiscal 2014.

Starbucks is naturally the superior brand in coffee, worthy of a premium. However, analysts’ profit forecasts have been inching higher for Green Mountain in the recent weeks and months — and that may continue to move higher once the pros digest the strong March K-Cup sales data. The same can’t be said for Starbucks.

Hot research is brewing
With Green Mountain as cheap as it’s ever been, many investors are wondering whether this is the end of the former …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

An Easy Way to Zero In on the Growing Large- and Mid-Cap Markets

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Exchange-traded funds offer a convenient way to invest in sectors or niches that interest you. If you’d like to add some sizable companies to your portfolio, the Guggenheim Russell 1000 Equal Weight ETF could save you a lot of trouble. Instead of trying to figure out which companies will perform best, you can use this ETF to invest in lots of them simultaneously. It weights its holdings equally, instead of by market cap, as many indexes do.

The basics
ETFs often sport lower expense ratios than their mutual fund cousins. The Guggenheim ETF‘s expense ratio — its annual fee — is a relatively low 0.42%. The fund is fairly small, too, so if you’re thinking of buying, beware of possibly large spreads between its bid and ask prices. Consider using a limit order if you want to buy in.

This ETF is too young to have a sufficient track record to assess. As with most investments, of course, we can’t expect outstanding performances in every quarter or year. Investors with conviction need to wait for their holdings to deliver.

Why large companies?
Large companies can add some ballast to your collection. Many may not grow as briskly as their smaller counterparts, but to reach their current size, they probably have some strong assets and features. And some can grow quite briskly, too. This ETF focuses on ones that seem undervalued according to some measures, which can boost the overall margin of safety for the basket.

More than a handful of large- and mid-cap companies had solid performances over the past year. Walgreen surged 41%, finally moving on from its now-resolved snit with pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts. Its pharmacy volume is picking up, and it has invested heavily in international growth, via a purchase of Europe-based Alliance Boots. It has also entered into a promising alliance with U.S. drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen.

Tyson Foods gained 25%, recently hitting a 52-week high despite margin compression due to rising prices. It also may be affected by Washington’s sequester, which is furloughing USDA meat inspectors, which can slow down business — though Tyson isn’t too worried about that. Management is bullish for its longer-term prospects, and Tyson’s forward P/E ratio of 9 is intriguing.

Other companies didn’t do as well last year but could see their fortunes change in the coming years. Food giant Archer Daniels Midland gained 5%, but some analysts, such as those at BMO Capital Markets, see it as a bit overvalued now; BMO cut its rating to market perform. The company recently raised its dividend by 9%, and it now yields 2.3%. In February, it posted strong second-quarter results, despite weak corn processing numbers.

A market darling not so long ago, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters added 3%. Investors have been worried about the patent expiration for its K-Cups, but the company has continued signing big …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Is Apple Really Rotten to the Core?

By Jeremy Phillips and Austin Smith, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

In the video below, Fool analysts Jeremy Phillips and Austin Smith discuss Apple and whether, after falling 30%, it’s truly rotten to the core.

Apple’s core is its great portfolio of products, and Austin thinks those products still command industry-leading margins. It’s also in the company’s ability to innovate. The new iPad mini is one of the best electronic devices Austin has ever owned.

That’s why Apple’s sales numbers continue to be up across the board.

So, Apple’s absolutely not rotten to the core, Austin says.

Its fall differs from those at other one-time market darlings like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in that Apple has no significant worries like accounting concerns, he says. Green Mountain also posted numbers that justified a price drop.

Apple’s fall was more similar to that of Netflix , which pulled back after a great run, only to later rally again. The core of the business never changed.

Apple’s core remains intact. It still posts industry-topping margins, and the demand for its products has not diminished.

f you want to learn what’s really driving Apple today, The Motley Fool’s premium Apple research service has the answers. You’re invited to join the members that had the courage to take control of their wealth, simply click here now to get started.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Coffee Fungus Outbreak to Cause Pain for Investors and Consumers?

By Blake Bos, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

A recent Bloomberg article cited Jose Angel Buitrago, president of the Central American Organization of Coffee Exporters, as saying that a coffee rust fungus affecting this year’s crop could reduce the harvest by up to 25%. In the following video, Motley Fool consumer-goods analyst Blake Bos tells investors in such companies as Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters how this could affect them, as well as what it could mean for your morning coffee.

With Green Mountain cheaper than it’s ever been, many investors are wondering whether this is the end of the former market darling, or the perfect entry point for an enormous rebound. You can find our recommendation for how to play the company in our new premium research report. In it you’ll find everything you need to know about Green Mountain, including whether it’s a buy at today’s prices. Click here for instant access.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) Increases Fair Trade Coffee Purchases by Five Million Po

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) Increases Fair Trade Coffee Purchases by Five Million Pounds Annually

Coffee leader converts top-selling Nantucket Blend® to Fair Trade Certified™ coffee

WATERBURY, Vt.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) (NAS: GMCR) today announced that another one of its best-selling coffees, Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend®, is now 100-percent Fair Trade Certified™. This conversion will represent approximately five million pounds of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee for fiscal year 2013 and will deliver an estimated $1 million in fair trade social premiums to coffee farmers annually.

Purchasing Green Mountain Coffee®Fair Trade Certified™ varieties helps farmers receive a fair price for their beans, resulting in quality coffee and a higher quality of life in coffee-farming communities. Beans for Nantucket Blend® are sourced from carefully-selected Fair Trade Certified™ coffee farms in Central America, South America, Africa, and Indonesia. The Nantucket Blend® conversion is the latest step in the Green Mountain Coffee® brand’s continued support of fair trade.

In 2000, GMCR became one of the first roasters in the United States to offer Fair Trade Certified™ coffees, and in 2012, the company was named the world’s largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee by Fair Trade USA for the second year in a row.

“Converting our Nantucket Blend now allows us to bring more Green Mountain Coffee fair trade varieties to a larger consumer base than ever before,” said Lindsey Bolger, Senior Director of Coffee for the Specialty Coffee business unit of GMCR. “We’re proud to be able to maintain the taste and quality of one of our most popular coffees while significantly changing the impact its existence will have around the world.”

The conversion of all Nantucket Blend® coffee sold in bags, K-Cup® and Vue® packs to Fair Trade Certified™ was completed in January 2013. The brand’s Brew Over Ice Nantucket Blend® Iced Coffee will be converted by May 2013, making it the first Fair Trade Certified™ Brew Over Ice beverage offered for the Keurig® K-Cup® and Vue® brewing systems.

Green Mountain Coffee® Nantucket Blend® is a complex blend that weaves three exotic and delicious coffee-attributes together – winey, berry tones from East Africa, deep, full-bodied flavor from Indonesia, and zesty and bright flavors from the Americas. Nantucket Blend® is currently available in 12-count, 18-count, 24-count and 80-count K-Cup® pack boxes, in 12 oz. ground coffee bags, and 16-count Vue® pack boxes. With the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Brews Respect

By Rick Munarriz, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is finally getting the respect it deserves.

Lazard Capital Markets boosted its price target on the company behind the popular Keurig single-serve coffee platform yesterday. It initiated coverage of Green Mountain back in September with a buy rating and a $39 price. The stock‘s been on fire in recent months, and the firm has been inching its goals higher accordingly. Yesterday’s move pushes Lazard’s price target from $58 to $67, but don’t assume that the ceiling is just a little more than 20% away. If Green Mountain‘s fundamentals keep improving, it’s a safe bet that Lazard will continue to adjust its marks.

An item on TheFlyOnTheWall.com notes that Lazard also had kind words to say about Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill , lumping all three stocks as having the best upside in the restaurant sector. Lazard is sticking to its $393 price target for Chipotle, though it’s raising its goal on Starbucks from $69 to $74.

One can argue that Green Mountain isn’t really a restaurant stock. There are a growing number of restaurants turning to Keurig K-Cups to brew individual cups of coffee, but Green Mountain is more of an anti-retail play. Keurig offers home owners and company break rooms ways to save on blasts of Joe without having to hit up the local barista.

However, if we’re going to lump all three companies in one pot, it bears pointing out that Green Mountain is the cheapest of the three even though it’s growing a bit faster.

Really.

 

2013 P/E

2013 Rev. Growth

Starbucks

26.4

11.9%

Chipotle

31.2

15.5%

Green Mountain

19.4

15.9%

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

This isn’t a shot at Starbucks or Chipotle. They are both stronger brands than Green Mountain‘s Keurig, and they haven’t been hit with last year’s K-Cup patent expirations and earlier accusations of iffy accounting. However, as Green Mountain leaves the past shrinking in the rearview mirror — proving that it’s a capable growth stock with sound future prospects — the market is clearly warming up to a stock that’s still trading for half of its all-time highs from two summers ago.

There’s caffeinated respect in that K-Cup, and Wall Street‘s ready to drink it up.

This should keep you up tonight
With Green Mountain as cheap as it’s ever been, many investors are wondering whether this is the end of the former market darling or the perfect entry point for an enormous rebound. You can find our recommendation for how to play the company in our new premium research report. In it, you’ll find everything you need to know about Green Mountain, including whether it’s a buy at today’s prices. Click here for instant access.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Thursday's Top News Headlines

By Motley Fool Staff

Filed under:

Here are today’s top news headlines from 
Fool.com
. Check back throughout the day as this list is updated, and follow us on Twitter at 
TMFBreaking
.

Target Closes Sale of Credit Card Portfolio

Dell Unveils New All-in-One Device

Mondelez Declares Dividend, Authorizes Share Buybacks

Google to Close Google Reader & 7 Other Products

Sandridge Settles With TPG-Axon to Avoid Proxy Battle

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to Cut Jobs


The article Thursday’s Top News Headlines originally appeared on Fool.com.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to Cut Jobs

By Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will be making cuts in its employee rolls. The company announced that 74 full-time employees at two of its smaller facilities — one in Castroville, Calif., and the other in Toronto — will be part of a “workforce reduction.” Seasonal layoffs will also affect 36 workers in Toronto and another facility in Montreal.

The firm pointed out that these moves will cover less than 2% of its total North American workforce as of the end of 2012.

Green Mountain expects these cuts to be complete by mid-May. It anticipates that it will book a one-time charge of $600,000-$650,000 in its Q2 for costs related to the redundancies.

The article Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to Cut Jobs originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman has no position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. The Motley Fool recommends Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain Coffee Gets No Respect

By Rick Munarriz, Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is the Rodney Dangerfield of coffee stocks.

Just as Dangerfield crafted an ironically lucrative career telling people that he doesn’t get any respect, the company behind the Keurig single-cup brewing system is still getting dissed even though the shares have more than tripled since bottoming out this past summer.

The latest slam came over the weekend as Barron’s Andrew Bary suggested that Warren Buffett may want to consider snapping up Bed Bath & Beyond . In dismissing the recent same-store sales weakness at the home-goods retailer — up just 1.7% in its fiscal quarter ending in November and pegged to grow between 2% and 4% in the quarter that just ended last month — Bary argues that the K-Cup company may be to blame.

One reason for weaker sales could be flagging interest in Keurig coffee makers made by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Bed Bath is a major seller of them.

Are you getting that? There’s flagging interest in Keurig brewers, and that’s why Bed Bath & Beyond is doing so poorly.

Well, let’s fact-check that salvo.

Back to School 
Bed Bath & Beyond net sales in its November quarter were crummy. Net sales did climb 15%, but 79% of that growth was tied to the June acquisitions of Linen Holdings and Cost Plus. Back out those purchases and organic growth at the namesake chain rose a mere 3% as a result of meager expansion and the 1.7% increase in comps.

By that math, Green Mountain must be doing lousy if “flagging interest” is dragging down Bed Bath & Beyond’s performance.

It’s not, but don’t take my word for it.

Bed Bath & Beyond and Green Mountain don’t have the same fiscal calendar, but we do know that net sales rose 16% during the holiday quarter ending in December and that Green Mountain‘s target net sales growth of 15% to 20% for the entire fiscal year that ends in September. Nothing there seems to match the 3% organic growth at Bed Bath & Beyond during the November quarter of what will likely be net sales growth of less than 5% during the quarter that just ended.

One can argue that Bary did specify brewers — not the popular K-Cup refills — but that doesn’t hold up, either. Green Mountain sold a record 4.95 million Keurig brewers during the holiday quarter, 18% more than it did a year earlier.

Easy Money
Green Mountain investors should be used to this by now. Despite its stellar growth and even its recent buoyant appreciation, the company that owns the single-serve brewing market is often talked down in its own niche.

Remember when the introduction of Starbucks‘ Verismo was supposed to cool Keurig’s popularity? Well, the Verismo rollout last year didn’t dissuade Green Mountain from sticking to its 15% to 20% net sales growth trajectory. Brewer sales were up 14% and K-Cup sales were up 21% in Green Mountain‘s latest …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Green Mountain's Worst K-Cup Yet

By Alyce Lomax, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Investors reacted positively to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters‘ K-Cup deal with Unilever’s venerated Lipton tea brand. The only problem is that it’s ridiculous. Since when is making a cup of hot tea the old-fashioned way that hard?

Single-serve coffee makes perfect sense. It’s easier to churn out one cup of coffee instead of grinding beans, measuring amounts, and making a whole pot that may go to waste. It’s perfect for people who need just one cup to go in the morning, or those whose family’s coffee tastes differ; it’s a great way to deal with various opinions on, say, hazelnut. For the latter reason, it makes total sense in the office, too.

However, the problem with Green Mountain‘s Lipton deal is that unless you’re talking about the more languid tradition of brewing a pot using loose tea, hot tea has pretty much been a single-serve beverage for ages.

Tea bags have been around for more than a century, with patents showing up around in the early 1900s. Lipton formed thereafter, and sources say Lipton’s then-innovative “Flo-Thru” tea bag hit the market in the 1950s.

The real-world truth is that brewing tea in tea bags is already convenient. It simply consists of boiling water and putting a tea bag in a cup of hot water. (Some even reuse the tea bag again, another money-saving attribute you won’t get with a K-Cup or other single-serve pod.)

Granted, tea is a new market to explore and expand in the United States. That’s certainly why Starbucks recently purchased mall-based upscale tea retailer Teavana to add to its Tazo tea product line. Tea comes in many forms, many artisan and even rare, and boasts health benefits such as antioxidants. It’s also not as jitter-inducing as its cousin, coffee.

Last but not least, Green Mountain‘s K-Cups still aren’t easily recyclable. A K-Cup user would have to be a diehard to separate the two parts of the K-Cup that are easily recyclable, plus this action detracts from the convenience they’re known for. (Thankfully, Green Mountain‘s pods for its Vue machine are easily recycled in places that take No. 5 plastic.)

It’s kind of nauseating to think of more K-Cups clogging up landfills when the majority of old-school tea bags are mostly biodegradable. A 2010 study showed most tea bags in the U.K. are only 70% to 80% biodegradable, but consumers are still encouraged to compost them, and that’s a lot better than used K-Cups’ destiny to hang around.

Green Mountain‘s stock has been on a roller-coaster ride over the past year or so, with many doubting the soundness of its business on many levels. Right now, investors view new licensing deals with consumer giants very positively. After all, heavyweights such as Starbucks are also entering the single-serve coffee market, giving Green Mountain a major run for the money in an area it long dominated.

Still, in the real world, some of these partnerships simply won’t do much for Green Mountain …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance