SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seattle’s Best Coffee, part of Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX), and leading specialty food manufacturer Inventure Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNAK) are teaming up to launch Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends, the coffee category’s first blend-at-home frozen coffee beverage. With the Spring 2013 launch of Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends, coffee enthusiasts can enjoy their favorite Seattle’s Best Coffee frozen drinks from the comfort of their own kitchen.
This new product launch represents a move to bring frozen coffee into the home as a response to the growing popularity of at-home blending and the rise of blended coffee drinks. The Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends will appeal to a booming number of blended coffee drinkers in the U.S., sales of which have surged to $4.3 billion in 20122.
“This exclusive agreement with Seattle’s Best Coffee further underscores our position as a leading innovator in the specialty food and frozen beverage segments,” said Terry McDaniel, chief executive officer of Inventure Foods, Inc. “We are pleased to collaborate with a premier brand like Seattle’s Best Coffee to introduce a premium frozen beverage product, which we believe provides our retail partners with timely, on-trend beverage items in their frozen aisles.”
Seattle’s Best Coffee leveraged more than 40 years of coffee experience to help develop the new packaged coffee drinks. The new line of Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends is made with high-quality 100 percent arabica coffee beans, and will be available in four unique flavors: Coffee Chiller®, Creamy Caramel®, Very Vanilla®, and Mega Mocha®.
“Finally, there is an easy way for customers to make their own blended coffee,” said Jennifer Dimaris, vice president, brand management for Seattle’s Best Coffee. “The demand for blended coffee is heating up, and we’re ready to help coffee drinkers cool off with a Seattle’s Best Coffee-quality beverage in the comfort of their own homes.”
The at-home blended coffee drink puts equal emphasis on taste and convenience: consumers simply empty the contents of the frozen bag into a blender, add eight ounces of fat-free milk and press blend to make two, eight-ounce beverages in less than a minute. In addition, the Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends feature zero trans fats, just nine grams of sugar, and only 130 calories per serving when prepared as directed, providing a smart, customizable and convenient beverage to make at home.
“The recent growth of iced coffee suggests that consumers no longer view coffee as just a morning routine,” said Steve Sklar, senior vice president of marketing at Inventure Foods. “We see great potential for a delicious frozen coffee drink that can easily be made at home or at work any time of the day.”
With a suggested retail price ranging from $2.99-$3.49, each Seattle’s Best Coffee® Frozen Coffee Blends will be sold in an eight-ounce, stand-up vertical packaging found in the freezer section of grocery stores and mass retailers.
About Inventure Foods, Inc.
With manufacturing facilities in Arizona, Indiana and Washington, Inventure Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNAK) is a marketer and manufacturer of specialty food brands in better-for-you and indulgent categories under a variety of Company owned and licensed brand names, including Boulder Canyon Natural Foods®, Jamba®, Seattle’s Best Coffee™, Rader Farms®, T.G.I. Friday's®, Nathan’s Famous®, Vidalia Brands™, Poore Brothers®, Tato Skins® and Bob's Texas Style®. For further information about Inventure Foods, please visit www.inventurefoods.com.
About Seattle’s Best Coffee
Seattle’s Best Coffee LLC has been roasting premium coffee since 1970 and today roasts more than 20 million pounds of coffee every year and millions of cups of our coffee are served every day. A freshly-brewed cup of Seattle’s Best Coffee is currently available in more than 50,000 locations including cafes, college campuses, restaurants, hotels, airlines, cruise ships, grocery stores and movie theatres. Seattle’s Best Coffee is a featured brand within Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX). For more information, please visit Seattle’s Best Coffee online at www.seattlesbest.com. Become a member of the coffee community at www.facebook.com/SeattlesBestCoffee or follow Seattle’s Best Coffee on Pinterest for unique coffee inspiration at www.pinterest.com/seattlesbest. For information about our retail franchise opportunity, please visit www.seattlesbest.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
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1 Source: IRI Data, 52 weeks ending 1/27/13
2 Source: StudyLogic 2012