By Claire Reilly
The Breville Group has announced that it will cease its partnership with North American portioned coffee brand Keurig when its current distribution arrangement expires on 30 June 2013. The decision is the results of discussions between Breville and Keurig on the future of the partnership, which were foreshadowed in Breville’s half-yearly report last month.
Breville CEO Jack Lord confirmed the news in a statement released to the Australian Securities Exchange today.
“Our Breville branded business continues to grow in North America and we remain focused on building the Breville business globally through designing and developing the world’s best kitchen products,” he said.
“Breville has been proud to be associated with building the Keurig business in Canada which complemented the establishment of the Breville brand in North America.”
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Breville is parting ways with Keurig just two months after it signed a major Australian deal to produce a line of Breville-branded portioned coffee machines in association with Nespresso. While the distribution arrangement with Keurig was only for the Canadian market, and the Nespresso partnership is currently just in Australia and New Zealand, the cutting of ties with Keurig is telling.
The Keurig brand has also faced difficulties in recent months with the patent on its ‘K-Cup’ pods (similar to Nespresso’s single-serve coffee pods) expiring in September last year.
While there has been no news of Breville expanding its Nespresso offering beyond Australia and New Zealand, the company confirmed in today’s statement that it “continues to invest in new product development and…continues to expand its geographic reach with the appointment of new international distributors.”
With the brand set to launch its new Nespresso machines this year and move into the UK in mid-2013, today’s news could be a sign that there is more international change on the horizon.
One of Keurig’s K-Cup Single Cup brewing machines.