Jammin Java, which does business as Marley Coffee, a sustainably grown, ethically farmed and artisan roasted gourmet coffee, today announced a general corporate update to supplement its recently filed first quarter 2012 results.
The Company believes a key to its growth is a multichannel distribution and sales strategy and its success in introducing a wide array of coffee products through multiple distribution channels using the Marley Coffee brand name. The main channels of revenue for the Company are now and are expected to continue to be: US and international grocery retail, online retail, office coffee services (OCS), foodservice, vending and automated retailing.
“Over the past 10 months, we’ve gone from selling one line in the US, our organic Whole Bean offering, to become an international gourmet coffee company with a portfolio of exceptional, distinctive coffee and tea products,” said Rohan Marley, chairman, Marley Coffee. “Our expanded product line allows us to offer Marley Coffee through any business channel we choose to pursue and we’ve been working with distributors and other business partners worldwide to aggressively establish sales in new and diversified channels.”
“We have created a foundation from which to increase our market share and bring our brand and products to customers worldwide, which we expect will deliver long-term value to our shareholders,” said Brent Toevs, CEO, Marley Coffee. “While we’re very pleased with our significant top-line growth, we recognize there is still much work ahead of us to improve our bottom-line performance and to effectively build upon our forward momentum. Our first quarter 2012 revenue increase reflects the hard work of many people on our team and among our business partners.”
Since August 2011, the Company has expanded beyond its original organic Whole Bean offering to introduce:
•Marley Coffee Organic Ground and Marley Coffee Jamaica Blue Mountain® Ground;
•Award-winning, compostable Single-Serve Pods for Bunn and other pod-based home and office brewers;
•The new Marley Coffee RealCup™, compatible cartridges for use in most models of Keurig’s popular K-Cup brewing system;
•New OCS and foodservice products, including 2.5oz frac packs and 2lbs. Whole Bean bags;
•Branded vending solutions with industry innovators, AVT and Seaga/Saeco; and
•The Marley Coffee-brand Bike Caffe mobile retail franchise.
Toevs, concluded, “Our goal is to make Marley Coffee universal and give coffee lovers and those invested in the success of the industry the opportunity to provide and enjoy our products whenever, wherever and in whatever format they prefer – at home, the office or on-the-go through traditional and online retailers, office coffee services and foodservice programs, branded vending solutions, and our new, earth-friendly mobile franchise concept. We look forward to continued growth.”
U.S. and international grocery retail channels have grown to become the Company’s largest revenue channels, followed by online retail, office coffee services, food service and licensing.
Grocery Retail and Online Retail: Geographically, the Company initially focused on retail grocery sales and marketing on the West Coast and Southwestern parts of the United States and Western Canada. In the past few months, the Company has expanded to add distributor relationships in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States. The Company expects ongoing discussions with retailers will enable it to place Marley Coffee products in more retail chains throughout the year. Key retail products currently include Marley Coffee Organic Ground, Jamaica Blue Mountain Ground, and Whole Bean offerings. The new Marley Coffee RealCup is expected to begin shipping in September 2012 with orders being accepted now.
The largest and best known Marley Coffee retailers in the US currently include Fresh & Easy (a subsidiary of UK-based Tesco), Whole Foods Markets, Mollie Stone’s, New Leaf Markets, Andronico’s, Dean & Deluca and many independently owned gourmet specialty shops as well as online via Amazon.com and others and www.marleycoffee.com.
International distribution partnerships, which the Company began to establish in late 2011, are beginning to reap benefits. Marley Coffee is now available in the United Kingdom and Europe, Japan, the Caribbean and Chile. The Company expects to expand distribution to Australia as well as additional markets in South America in 2012.
OCS / Foodservice: The Company expects to experience growth in its OCS business segment starting in September 2012 when it begins shipping its new Marley Coffee RealCup product to distributors and OCS service providers. The Company also now has the ability through its network of regional distributors to provide Marley Coffee to businesses throughout the United States. The Company is also using the same regional distribution model to launch into the Foodservice arena with initial launches in the New York, Northern and Southern California regions and intends to add other regions to service this business channel across the country.
Branded Vending & Automated Retailing: In April 2012, during the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) OneShow annual trade show, the Company announced two licensing agreements for branded vending solutions. The Company announced a licensing partnership agreement with AVT, Inc. (OTC: AVTC), a leading developer of automated and self-service retailing systems, to create high-end Marley Coffee-branded automated coffee vending and merchandising machines that target college campuses, traditional retail locations, high-density traffic areas such as theaters and hotels, and traditional foodservice vendors. Several large retailers have already inquired about these new vending machines and the Company expects to begin seeing revenue from sales this fiscal year.
The Company also announced an agreement with Seaga Manufacturing, Inc., a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of equipment and accessories for the vending and cold merchandiser industries, to produce two Marley Coffee-branded vending solutions for the office coffee service (OCS), vending and food service marketplaces. One unit is designed for larger, high traffic environments, while the other is an automatic, table-top vending machine for small and medium traffic locations.
National Coffee Service & Vending (NCS&V), a current Marley Coffee sales agent for office coffee service, has incorporated the new branded vending machines from Seaga into its product offering, providing OCS customers with a comprehensive Marley Coffee-branded bean-to-cup solution.
Marley Coffee BikeCaffe Mobile Franchise: Also at the April 2012 NAMA OneShow, the Company introduced the Marley Coffee BikeCaffe Coffee Bike. BikeCaffe, found in select cities in the U.S. and Europe, is a new approach to serving coffee to customers. The three-wheeled, geared bikes are full-service cafes that can roll from location to location, leaving a small carbon footprint. Marley Coffee BikeCaffe Coffee Bike franchises are currently available via www.bikecaffe.com/marleycoffee, exclusively selling Marley Coffee beverages.
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