After a decade in business, coffee brand Lucky Jack quietly exited to private label manufacturer Magnum Coffee Roastery in mid-May. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Speaking with NOSH at this week’s SFA Fancy Food Show in New York, Magnum president Kevin Kihnke told BevNET that adding Lucky Jack’s IP and manufacturing capabilities – which includes oat milk and flavored coffee production, as well as bottling equipment for pull-top, squat bottles – will allow the Michigan-based coffee roaster, which maintains a facility in Las Vegas, to “open up a real breadth of options for [its] customer base.”
Founded in 2013 by veteran coffee roaster Richard Karno, Lucky Jack was later acquired by fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels and her Empowered Media group in 2016. Known mainly for its refrigerated cold brews in stubby Red Stripe-style bottles, the company later expanded with a canned line of shelf-stable, extra-functional oat milk lattes in 2021 and with ground coffee last year.
Magnum Coffee Roastery has been operating in the coffee industry as a private label producer and wholesaler for over three decades mostly focused on packaged whole bean and ground formats including bags, bricks and k-cups. The company also offers its own ground coffee blends under the Magnum Exotics brand.
The acquisition builds on the two companies existing relationship: Lucky Jack had been a Magnum client over the years sourcing green coffee beans and for wholesale purposes.
“We were looking to get into the beverage industry at some point and this was a quick fix,” Kihnke said.
As part of the sale, Magnum acquired Lucky Jack’s facility, bottling and IP; “most of the employees” have been retained as well, according to the company. Magnum will continue to sell Lucky Jack’s three-SKU line of ground coffees along with maintaining and expanding the canned and bottled RTDs.
Since closing the deal “after many weeks of negotiation and due diligence,” per Kihnke, Magnum has been cleaning up the brand’s formulations, finding ways to better emphasize the brand’s unique value propositions like its high-caffeine content – 320mg in the Triple Jack cold brew – and its USDA Organic certification.
Kihnke expects Lucky Jack to find room to grow in the premium energy drink category marketing it to the fitness community or other avenues where a highly caffeinated beverage is in demand. At this point, there are no plans to streamline the brand’s portfolio, Kihnke said.
“There’s a bit of a hangover with it right now,” he said. “It needs a period of time where we can relaunch it with a bit of vigor and it finds a place on the shelf again.”