Quote:
The plan to go private follows a dramatic rise and fall for Keurig, a pioneer of single-serve coffee brewers. The surging popularity of its device, which allowed consumers to brew one cup of java at a time, sent sales and profit soaring in the past decade. In February 2014, Coca-Cola Co. agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in the company, betting that Keurig could repeat its success with a cold-beverage maker.
But that product, the Keurig Kold, is only being released on a limited basis this holiday season—a slower rollout than investors had anticipated. And the reaction to the device has been underwhelming, according to Stifel Financial Corp. That has raised concerns that it will become a niche product. At the same time, demand for its hot brewers and K-cups—the pods that go into the machines—has slowed. That's left the company without a reliable growth engine.
Still want one but how hard will it be to get pods for the beverages? Need retailers to sell the units and pods.