called green mountain coffee roasters 1981 2014 type privately held industry food and beverage appliance manufacturing founded waitsfield vermont u.s. 1981 1981 1 founder robert p. stiller 2 headquarters waterbury vermont u.s. key people brian kelley president and ceo 2 products coffee makers and pods beverages coffee tea cocoa owner jab holding company website keuriggreenmountain.com keurig green mountain formerly green mountain coffee roasters is a specialty coffee and coffeemaker company founded in 1981 and headquartered in the u.s. it sources produces and sells coffee hot cocoa teas and other beverages under various brands in portion packs for its keurig brewing systems ; and sells coffee beans and ground coffee in bags and fractional packs . it sells many of its beverage varieties in k cup single serve pods and as of 2015 offers vue rivo bolt and k carafe pods as well . through its own and its partnership licensed brands the company offers over 400 different varieties of coffee and other beverage selections . these include coffees that are certified organic fair trade certified specialty blends and flavored coffees and beverages . begun as a small specialty coffee roaster and store in vermont in 1981 after regional and national expansion in the late 1980s and an ipo in 1993 green mountain coffee roasters completed its acquisition of the brewing machine manufacturer keurig inc. in 2006 enabling rapid growth through the high margin sales of its many varieties of single serve k cup pods for home and office use . gmcr changed its name to keurig green mountain in march 2014 . the company is headquartered in waterbury vermont . its canadian business unit subsidiary operates as keurig canada inc. a publicly traded company from 1993 through 2015 in december 2015 the company announced that a group of investors led by jab holding company would acquire keurig green mountain for 13.9 billion in cash . 3 4 the acquisition closed in march 2016 . 5 6 keurig green mountain is now a privately held company and is an independent entity run by its pre existing management team and a new ceo . 7 8 9 contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 expansion 1.3 keurig and the launch of k cups with green mountain coffee 1.4 acquisition of keurig inc. 1.5 new brewers and company name change 1.6 acquisition by jab and other investors 2 corporate affairs 2.1 sustainability 2.2 corporate social responsibility 2.3 business segments and brands 2.4 corporate governance 3 references 4 external links history edit beginnings edit green mountain coffee roasters had its inception when entrepreneur bob stiller discovered a cup of coffee so good near a vermont ski resort that he sought out the source of the coffee . in 1981 he and a partner bought a two thirds stake in the small specialty coffee roasting company in waitsfield vermont that produced the roasted beans . 10 the store and cafe sold beans grounds and coffee to the public and a few restaurants . 11 at a time when premium specialty or gourmet coffee was still rare stiller dedicated himself to coffee roasting using exclusively arabica coffee beans . 12 by 1982 the company had around 30 employees and moved its production facilities to waterbury vermont . 13 stiller bought out his two partners for 100 000 and became sole proprietor of the company within two years of his original purchase 10 but it took four years to turn a profit . 10 11 to grow the business stiller sold the coffee to high end restaurants and gas stations alike and since he couldn t afford advertising he gave out free samples . in 1986 he launched a mail order business which he advertised in gourmet magazines and acquired his first supermarket chain customer kings . 13 stiller embraced technology very early on to track customers orders ; to regulate roasting heat levels appropriate to each bag ; and to track distribution manufacturing sales and personnel adopting peoplesoft in 1997 . 10 the company also began to embrace an environmental and socially responsible ethos very quickly ; by 1983 employees composted used coffee grounds at its retail stores and by 1986 green mountain introduced its first organic coffee in a retail market test . 13 environmentalism sustainability corporate social responsibility and fair trade soon were overarching policies green mountain became well known for . it is one of the largest suppliers of double certified fair trade and organic coffee in the world . 14 15 expansion edit as american tastes in coffee changed sales of green mountain roasted coffee beans grew . 12 in 1991 gmcr had seven retail outlets 1 000 wholesale clients 11 million in sales and 200 000 in profits . 11 by 1993 the company had 2 400 wholesale accounts and sales of about 10 million 11 and green mountain coffee roasters inc. started trading publicly under the ticker gmcr . the company expanded its retail locations food service distribution mail order business and wholesale business . 11 in 1994 green mountain began exporting to canada and taiwan . 11 in the late 1990s it broadened its national supermarket chain distribution gas station and convenience store distribution throughout the northeast and it sold its product in airlines and amtrak specialty coffee stores and venues such as ll bean weight watchers international and staples . 11 13 keurig and the launch of k cups with green mountain coffee edit in 1993 the three engineering entrepreneurs from a massachusetts start up called keurig had approached gmcr about developing a single cup coffee brewing system and green mountain had first invested in the nascent company at that time . 13 16 in 1996 gmcr invested further in keurig buying a 35 % interest in the company . 10 17 in 1997 green mountain coffee roasters became the first roaster to offer coffee in a k cup pod for the keurig single cup brewing system 13 and in 1998 keurig delivered its first brewing system designed for office use . 18 the launch of the first k cups with green mountain coffee helped gmcr begin to further compete with the ubiquitous presence of starbucks by allowing people to brew their own single servings of premium coffee . also in 1997 a deal with poland spring opened the office worker market by distributing green mountain coffee to thousands of offices in the northeast . 11 in 1998 gmcr closed its 12 retail shops in favor of the burgeoning direct mail and online market its growing distributions to business offices and other national venues and its wholesale market . 10 11 19 that year it signed an exclusive deal with american skiing company offered its first corporate gifts catalogue sold its certified organic coffee in exxonmobil s national and international on the run convenience stores and expanded its supermarket distribution to 500 stores . 11 in 1999 it expanded its export market including to great britain . 11 in 2000 green mountain reached an agreement to promote and sell fair trade coffee committing to making at least 3 % of its sales fair trade certified by transfair usa . 19 20 in 2001 the company acquired frontier organic coffee 21 and in 2002 it signed an agreement to sell fair trade coffee under the newman s own organics label . 22 in late 2005 gmcr reached a deal to sell its newman s own organics blend coffee in more than 600 mcdonald s restaurants in new england and upstate new york . 23 acquisition of keurig inc. edit in 2006 green mountain which had successively invested in and acquired increasing percentage ownership of keurig inc. in 1993 1996 and 2003 by which time it had a 43 % ownership completed its full acquisition of the single cup brewing systems manufacturer . 17 the successive acquisition allowed green mountain to adopt a multi brand portfolio and multichannel distribution of brands in a variety of settings with numerous opportunities for consumers to try individual brands by the cup . 24 it also fueled enormous revenue growth and allowed gmcr to transition fully from deriving 95 % of its revenue from its low margin wholesale coffee business in the late 1990s approximately 65 million to deriving 95 % of its revenue from high margin sales of k cups as of 2014 more than 4.3 billion . 25 green mountain also acquired the four additional keurig licensees tully s coffee timothy s world coffee diedrich coffee and van houtte in 2009 and 2010 . 26 27 in march 2009 it purchased seattle based tully s brand and its wholesale coffee business for 40.3 million . 24 28 in november 2009 green mountain acquired the wholesale division of canadian coffee provider timothy s for 157 million . 29 it purchased the california based diedrich coffee in december 2009 for 290 million . 30 in 2010 green mountain coffee bought the canadian distributor quebec based coffee services company van houtte for 915 million . 31 gmcr canada was founded in 2010 and officially became the canadian business unit of green mountain coffee roasters inc. in 2011 ; it has been known as keurig canada inc. since march 2014 . 18 32 on september 28 2010 the company s stock rose to what was then an all time high but the company disclosed after the markets closed that the securities and exchange commission had requested documents and data related to an inquiry into how it accounted for revenue . 33 the company announced that u.s. regulators had inquired into some of green mountain s accounting practices including revenue recognition and the large inventory with a single vendor m. block and sons inc. most analysts felt that the company practices were sound . 34 the sec ended the probe in october 2014 and brought no enforcement action against green mountain or its employees . 35 36 in february 2011 green mountain announced an agreement with dunkin donuts to make dunkin donuts coffee available in single serve k cup pods for use with keurig single cup brewers . in addition participating dunkin donuts restaurants on occasion offer keurig single cup brewers for sale . 37 in march 2011 green mountain coffee and starbucks announced a similar deal whereby starbucks would sell its coffee and tea in keurig single serve pods and would in return sell keurig machines in their stores as part of the deal . 38 new brewers and company name change edit green mountain coffee roasters introduced the keurig vue brewer paired with new vue packs in february 2012 39 seven months before patents on the k cup expired in september 2012 . 40 the vue system was announced as having customizable features so consumers had control over the strength size and temperature of their beverages and the vue pack is made of recyclable 5 plastic . 39 in november 2012 gmcr released its espresso cappucino and latte brewer the rivo co developed with the italian coffee company lavazza . 41 in the fall of 2013 the company released a full pot brewer the keurig bolt for use mainly in offices . 42 in february 2014 the coca cola company purchased a 10 % stake in the company valued at 1.25 billion with an option to increase their stake to 16 % which was exercised in may 2014 . 43 the partnership was part of coca cola s support of a cold beverage system to be developed by keurig that allows customers to make coca cola and other brand soft drinks at home . 43 in january 2015 the company made a similar deal with dr pepper snapple group but without a stockholder stake . 44 in early march 2014 green mountain coffee roasters shareholders voted to change its name to keurig green mountain to reflect its business of selling keurig coffee makers . 45 its stock market symbol remained gmcr . 46 in the fall of 2014 keurig green mountain introduced the keurig 2.0 brewer