Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in 2011 established a partnership with Keurig coffee brewer makers for strategic reasons such as manufacturing and marketing distribution. Green Mountain and the Keurig k-cup technology offer portion packs to make it most convenient for coffee drinkers to give them more options on the type of coffees. They made this possible by adding world famous Starbucks and later on adding Dunkin Donuts (along with other partnerships over time as well) to their line of k-cup options. This is a win-win situation, Green Mountain needed new coffee choices and Starbucks and Dunkin wanted to expand their presence by penetrating the premium single cup coffee market. GMCR has many aspects that make them successful, one is the fact that they made a partnership with Keurig who also believe that coffee should be served fresh weather at home or at the office. GMCR was movement all by themselves but a force when they paired up together because Keurig was great at the technology and innovative side of things and Green Mountain already had some amazing specialty coffee. They figured out that when people brew a coffee pot, it is really only the first cup you pour that us the best. In turn, as mentioned before, the came up with the revolutionary concept of the K-cup where it makes enough for just that perfect cup eliminating the hassle of measuring coffee or water and adding a filter every time. Of course with this new invention, it was only obvious that this became a hit for many people both in home and office.
With any great partnership there are always weaknesses and threats within the deal. Some of these include the fact that all of the K- coffee brewers are made in China by a single manufacturer. This poses great risk to GMCR, which could affect the supply cost of the machines, and make the cost per unit rise with any little situation. For example something could happen with the Chinese
References: * Dess, Gregory G. Strategic Management: Text and Cases. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. Print. * "Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. - Financial Information." Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. - Financial Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.