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Green Mountain Coffee Initiates Next Phase of Knox County, Tennessee Facility

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  Published in House and Home on Wednesday, January 28th 2009 at 14:53 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-01-28 14:54:30 by Market Wire
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WATERBURY, Vt.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Just months after opening its new manufacturing plant in Knox County, Tennessee, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR) today announced that it will begin installation of coffee processing equipment in the facility. The equipment will be used for cleaning, storing and roasting green coffee as well as for blending and grinding roasted coffee. GMCR will be investing approximately $8 million for this project through the end of its fiscal year 2009, consistent with capital investment plans.

Green Mountain Coffee will use the new roasting infrastructure to support its packaging lines from within the existing facility in Knox County. The facility primarily manufactures K-Cup^® portion packs for the Keurig^® Single-Cup Brewing System.

"This investment in our manufacturing capacity will allow us to continue to strengthen our infrastructure for the national expansion of our brands and our growth in the single-serve market," said Scott McCreary, COO of the Green Mountain Coffee segment of GMCR. "The increased capacity through our packaging, and now our roasting and grinding, gives us added flexibility to support our projected growth over the next several years, and creates opportunities for longer-term efficiency gains."

Green Mountain Coffee is in the process of evaluating roasting and grinding equipment suppliers for the project, taking into account its long-term capacity needs and operational efficiencies, as well as the overall environmental impact in alignment with its corporate social responsibility principles. The design and construction of a structure to hold the green and roasted coffee silos will begin in the spring of 2009 followed by work on the infrastructure. The integration of the equipment itself will begin in the summer of 2009 and is expected to be completed by early fall.

"As a leading specialty coffee company, roasting is the art and the science behind our great coffees," said Jon Wettstein, VP of Supply Chain Operations at Green Mountain Coffee. "We have been extremely pleased with the quick ramp-up of the Knoxville facility and see roasting and grinding as a critical enhancement to our current operations. At the same time, we will continue to create process efficiencies within our facilities in Waterbury and Essex, Vermont."

About Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) is recognized as a leader in the specialty coffee industry for its award-winning coffees, innovative brewing technology and socially and environmentally responsible business practices. GMCR manages its operations through two wholly owned business segments: Green Mountain Coffee and Keurig. Its Green Mountain Coffee segment sells more than 100 high-quality coffee selections, including Fair Trade Certified™ organic coffees, under the Green Mountain Coffee^® and Newman's Own^® Organics brands through its wholesale, direct mail and e-commerce operations ([ www.GreenMountainCoffee.com ]). Green Mountain Coffee also produces its coffee as well as hot cocoa and tea in K-Cup^® portion packs for Keurig^® Single-Cup Brewers. Keurig, Incorporated is a pioneer and leading manufacturer of gourmet single-cup brewing systems for offices, homes and hotel rooms. Keurig markets its patented brewers and K-Cups^® through office distributors, retail and direct channels ([ www.Keurig.com ]). K-Cups are produced by a variety of licensed roasters including Green Mountain Coffee. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. has been recognized repeatedly by CRO Magazine, Forbes and SustainableBusiness.com as a good corporate citizen and an innovative, high-growth company.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained herein are not based on historical fact and are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the applicable securities laws and regulations. Owing to the uncertainties inherent in forward-looking statements, actual results could differ materially. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the impact on sales and profitability of consumer sentiment in this difficult economic environment, the Company's success in efficiently expanding operations and capacity to meet growth, the Company's success in receiving required approvals for the acquisition of Tully's wholesale business and then in efficiently and effectively integrating Tully's wholesale operations and capacity into its Green Mountain Coffee segment, competition and other business conditions in the coffee industry and food industry in general, fluctuations in availability and cost of high-quality green coffee, any other increases in costs including fuel, the unknown impact of management changes, Keurig's ability to continue to grow and build profits with its roaster partners in the office and at home markets, the impact of the loss of one or more major customers for Green Mountain Coffee or reduction in the volume of purchases by one or more major customers, delays in the timing of adding new locations with existing customers, Green Mountain Coffee's level of success in continuing to attract new customers, sales mix variances, weather and special or unusual events, as well as other risks described more fully in the Company's filings with the SEC. Forward-looking statements reflect management's analysis as of the date of this press release. The Company does not undertake to revise these statements to reflect subsequent developments, other than in its regular, quarterly earnings releases.