Nearly two years after its acquisition by Chobani, La Colombe is staying focused on scale and customer acquisition as it continues to carve out a space for its single-serve cold brew coffees in retail – with convenience firmly in its crosshairs.
At the company’s booth yesterday, Jamie McGeehin, VP of commercial strategy and development for La Colombe, said the company’s goals for 2026 are still gaining distribution and driving trial, while 2027 is slated to be a big “innovation year.”
Sampling efforts are a key piece of this strategy, she said, while establishing the brand’s presence in major chains like QuikTrip, Casey’s and Wawa helps the business to utilize their resources for trial-driving programs.
Bill Solomon, director of convenience at La Colombe, said he believes most retailers haven’t given single-serve coffee the chance the category deserves to thrive, but that’s starting to change even as the coffee category has struggled in dollar sales with topheavy declines stemming from Starbucks’ recent sales slumps.
“It’s spot on with the consumer from a health standpoint, a caloric standpoint and so forth, and it has a great indulgent taste to it,” Solomon said. “And [retailers are] beginning to give that a shot now.”
While its draft lattes – recently reformulated under the oversight of Chobani for a better flavor balance – have been the best sellers to date, La Colombe also wants to push its canned unsweetened black coffee more in the new year. McGeehin said market research has shown an untapped consumer base of black coffee drinkers who could be incremental to the RTD space.
“Someone who is existing outside the category, who wouldn’t even enter because they don’t want sugar or don’t want milk, they’re coming in through Black,” she said.
La Colombe isn’t the only brand seeing the opportunity in black RTDs. At its booth, Black Rifle Coffee Company sampled new lightly sweetened Black and Vanilla Cold Brew flavors. Though can designs weren’t on display, key account manager Jim Weinsoft told us the final versions will have 2 grams of sugar and 25 calories in each 11 oz. can, with SRP expected to be around $2.99-$3.49.
The upcoming innovation from Black Rifle coincides with a refreshed label design across its canned coffees, providing a “better visual” intended to pop more on shelf.
Elsewhere on the floor, Uptime Energy reported that it’s also reworking its recent cold brew coffee pickup, Rise.
Though not on display at the company’s booth, director of retail sales Andrew Nichols said the company is working on upsizing the canned cold brew from 7 oz. to 12 oz. cans in order to streamline production with the Uptime line.