7 Brew’s ready-to-drink lineup features three versions. | Photo courtesy of 7 Brew.
The drive-thru coffee revolution is coming to the grocery store—sort-of.
7 Brew, the fast-growing drive-thru coffee chain, on Tuesday said it has started selling ready-to-drink canned coffee inside Walmart locations across Arkansas, where both companies are based.
This follows an earlier move by Dutch Bros, which recently started selling creamers, coffee pods, ground coffee and bottled beverages inside retailers as part of a strategy to raise customer awareness.
“We are very pleased with the initial customer reception and see meaningful potential to continue building this over time,” CEO Christine Barone told analysts last month.
Numerous restaurants of all types sell versions of their products for sale in retail outlets, enough that some sections of the local supermarket, such as frozen pizza, almost look like giant ads for restaurant chains. Restaurant companies typically work through CPG, or consumer packaged goods companies, that do the hefty lifting.
Coffee brands are particularly aggressive, enough that the grocery store coffee aisle is loaded with restaurant branded products. Starbucks, Dunkin’, McDonald’s, Peet’s, Caribou and others have long sold their products in grocers. At Starbucks, the products are big business, having generated nearly $1.9 billion in revenue last year.
Barone, who spent years at Starbucks, sounded more interested in another benefit: Customer awareness. The products act like small advertisements for the brands’ products.
She said that paid media and CPG together form an “awareness engine” that extends the brand beyond its shops and reinforces “daily awareness” that can ultimately lead to incremental visits to its drive-thru shops.
That’s crucial for a growing chain that is breaking into new markets all the time. “We continue to believe brand awareness remains a significant opportunity, making CPG one of our most efficient levers to continue driving durable long-term growth,” Barone said.
7 Brew is also growing rapidly and expanding into new markets, where it is increasingly competitive with Dutch Bros. The chain has been the country’s fastest growing brand in recent years and recently opened its 600th shop, nearly double the number it operated a year ago. Dutch Bros operates more than 1,100 shops.
“By introducing 7 Brew in ready-to-drink format, we can meet our customers in new places and extend the 7 Brew experience beyond our drive-thru stands,” Chris Dawson, the brand’s president, said in a statement.
The chain is selling those drinks in three flavors, a Blondie Chilled Espresso Breve, a Brunette Brownie Chilled Espresso Mocha and Banana Bread Chilled Espresso Breve.
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