Green Mountain Rises on Iced K-Cup

WATERBURY, Vt. (TheStreet) -- Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) shares rose Friday after the company introduced a new K-Cup portion pack designed to brew iced beverages.

Green Mountain's K-Cups, designed to be used in any Keurig machine, are increasingly popular with consumers, stealing market share from coffee competitors like McDonald's (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX), leading the latter to formulate its own instant coffee product, Via.

In Green Mountain's latest move to continue gaining market share, the company launched Brew Over Ice K-Cup Portion packs, which are designed to brew coffees and teas for over 16-ounce cups filled with ice.

Available flavors include Celestial Seasonings Half and Half - black tea and lemonade, Celestial Seasonings Southern Sweet Tea, Celestial Seasonings Iced Tea variety pack, Celestial Seasonings Sweet Black Tea, Celestial Seasonings Sweet Peach Black Tea, Celestial Seasonings Sweet Paspberry Black Tea and Celestial Seasoning Black Tea Unsweetened as well as Nantucket Blend Iced Coffee and French Vanilla Iced Coffee.

Green Mountain shares jumped 4.7% to $43.30 Friday at midday.

In its recent quarter, Green Mountain posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly report and 2011 outlook.

Green Mountain said strong sales of its Keurig single-cup brewing systems and K-Cup portion packs during the holiday shopping season led it to book a 66.6% jump in revenue to $575 million, from $345.2 million, topping expectations for sales of $545.5 million.

Net earnings came in at $2.2 million, or 2 cents per share, down from $10.1 million, or 7 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted for one-time losses, however, profits soared 73% to $26.1 million, or 18 cents per share, up from $15.1 million, or 11 cents per share, in the fiscal-first quarter last year.

1 2 3 Next › Last »