Did you know you can sell your own private labelled K-Cups?
In case you're not aware, K-Cups are those single serving coffee pods made by Keurig and are intended to to let you make a single cup of coffee by just popping them in a single serve coffee maker.
The coffee makers pierce the seal on the K-Cup and the processed coffee grounds inside the K-Cup get exposed to pressurized hot water. After passing through a filter the coffee is made, usually within seconds.
Of course K-Cups have also become synonymous with single serve coffee pods made by other brands. For instance Nespresso makes their own coffee pods (or capsules) as well.
Whatever you call them, K-Cups, Pods, and Capsules are in high demand.
You can try to make your own, but you can also source the K-Cups from suppliers and private label them to sell them from your own coffee brand.
In this post we'll outline how you can arrange to buy K-Cups wholesale and sell them through your own private label.
Noltpak
Enter "Noltpak". Located in Quarryville, PA according to their website they're "a family-owned and operated business that offers single serve coffee cup manufacturing."
While their messaging seesm to target companies who are only looking to private label the single serve coffee capsules for the purposes of branding (for example promotional giveaways or gifts at conferences etc..) they also make it clear they can accomodate people who are looking to sell their K-Cups as a business.
They boast low minimums and competitive pricing and also handle custom grinding, labelling, boxing, and just about everything else you might need to sell them.
Most importantly, they can also provide the coffee itself.
If you're looking to avoid investing in producing your own coffee, or just looking for a one stop shop to both produce the coffee and transform it into single serve cups they would be worth checking out.
Intelligent Blends
Intelligent Blends (IB) specializes in single serve coffee pods for private label purposes.
Operating out of San Diego, CA they provide everything from K-Cups, Stick Packs, and Espresso Capsules.
They specifically call out that their K-Cups are "certified recyclable" which is an important consideration given the initial blowback K-Cups received with respect to their environmental impact.
According to their website:
"..you have the option of using one of our 50+ house blends, or you can customize your roast that suits your brand. You’ll find that we have 1000’s of flavors and ingredients that can be combined to create a unique flavor profile. Our R&D team will work with you to make sure your roast is just right."
Impressively, IB also provides fulfillment services in certain locations.
This means in theory you could have them completely manage everything from the roasting, the packaging, the inventory, and the shipping. They have distribution centers in San Diego, Otay Mesa, and Hebron, KY.
They also provide house blends to over 100,000 hotels which means they are equipped to operate at scale and could make for a very capable longterm partner.
Sollo Wellness
Sollo Wellness offers a wide range of different coffee & tea related products. They also provide a "kcup solution" which is describes as the de-nesting of containers, filter installation, and production and sealing of single serve hot beverage pods that are compatible with all Keurig brewing systems.
They advertise that the service can be provided with a private label option, for those who wish to enter the promising market with low overhead costs.
That said, they do require a minimum order of 10,000 cups.
All packaging is FDA approved, which is also a significant advantage in terms of saving you time sorting out legal and licensing concerns.
Club Coffee
Club Coffee also provides an array of private label coffee services, including Single Serve Compostable Coffee Pods.
Again, they are an example of a potential partner that also doubles as a coffee roaster, so in addition to the packaging and processing required to product the K-Cup like coffee pods, they handle the sourcing and roasting of the coffee beans.
They call out their "Years of experience with Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and other sustainability certifiers" which also makes them uniquely suitable to anyone looking to sell K-Cups online while positioning their private label brand as being ethical and sustainability centric.
There's enough examples here conclude that selling K-Cups through your own private label brand is achievable, even if you need more than just packaging services.
The qualifiers and challenges are similar to any private label partnership, where you need to consider the tradeoffs in terms of minimum orders required.
Having said that, if you're looking for a solution where you want to sell these single serve coffee pods and even need help with managing shipping and inventory there are suppliers you can find that will help with that.
