Dunkin’ Donuts partners with Coca-Cola for bottled iced coffees

DUNKIN' Brands Group Inc. is getting into the bottled iced-coffee market and enlisting bottling giant Coca-Cola Co. to help.
DUNKIN' Brands Group Inc. is getting into the bottled iced-coffee market and enlisting bottling giant Coca-Cola Co. to help.

CHICAGO – Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. is getting into the bottled iced-coffee market and enlisting bottling giant Coca-Cola Co. to help.

Coca-Cola will be making, distributing and marketing the ready-to-drink beverages to be sold starting in the U.S. early next year, Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin’ said in a statement on Thursday. The iced coffees will be sold in grocery and convenience stores, as well as Dunkin’ Donuts shops across the nation.

“Our customers, especially younger customers, want to to have a Dunkin’ ready-to-drink iced coffee,” CEO Nigel Travis said in an interview. “It’s one of the fastest-growing segments of the packaged-goods industry.”

Dunkin’ is the latest company to recognize the potential of bottled beverages. Starbucks Corp. earlier this year enlisted Anheuser-Busch InBev NV to help with a bigger Teavana bottled-tea push. Those drinks also will be available in 2017. Dunkin’ lately has faced a tough consumer environment domestically: Second-quarter same-store sales growth slowed to 0.5 percent, compared with 2 percent in the prior period.

- Advertisement -

Dunkin’ shares fell 0.7 percent to $50.06 at 12:50 p.m. on Thursday in New York, while Atlanta-based Coca-Cola slipped 0.3 percent to $42.04.

The products will likely be distributed to “tens of thousands” of stores, said Travis, who declined to give financial details of the arrangement with Coca-Cola.

No posts to display