ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Over the course of three days this month, a highly caffeinated group of nearly 100 convenience-store operators, suppliers, product manufacturers and industry analysts gathered in Rosemont, Ill., to talk all things hot beverage.
From industry insights and trendy tidbits to operator challenges and the ins and outs of cold brew, here are five-ish points that stood out during CSP’s 2016 Hot Dispensed Beverage Forum.
1. As sick to death as we all might be of the “M” word, millennials are and will continue to be a significant purchasing group for convenience stores to consider, according to Chicago-based Technomic. At 90 million strong, this 18- to 34-year-old age group will only grow in influence as they advance in their careers. But they’re also big buyers of c-store coffee, with 64% saying they’re buying more coffee beverages from c-stores this year than last year (compared to 36% of overall c-store guests). What are they abandoning in favor of c-stores? Fifty-nine percent say fast-food restaurants, Technomic found.
2. Cold brew is a source of almost endless curiosity among c-store operators and has huge potential for success, according to S&D Coffee & Tea, Concord, N.C. An S&D survey of 3,163 consumers 18 and older found that 80% are, at minimum, interested in cold brew, with more than half saying they’re “extremely interested.” Yet there’s still some confusion over cold brew vs. its dairy-based, sweet cousin. About one-fifth of adults who’d tried cold brew at Starbucks during the past three months thought it was the same thing as iced coffee. And more than 60% who tried it switched back to iced coffee because they preferred the flavor.
3. This isn’t the first year that tea has been called the next up-and-coming beverage. And it’s easy to see why, with margins on hot and iced tea of about 98%, excluding the cost of the cup, says Joe Pawlak, managing principal for Technomic. With only a 1% share of gallons in hot beverage, tea constitutes a very small portion of the current market, with plenty of room for growth, he said.
4. Nondairy milks, from hemp to cashew and almond, are among the hottest trends in the specialty coffee world, according to dispatches from Coffee Fest in New York. “Whether gluten- or dairy-free, ‘free from’ is freedom to indulge for some people,” says Levi Andersen, beverage product specialist for Kerry. For those who might be wondering, hemp milk tastes like walnuts and oatmeal, making it a perfect pairing for pumpkin spice and cinnamon, he says. Pumpkin spice hemp latte, anyone?
5. A few additional relevant stats:
- Sixty-eight percent of convenience-store food and beverage purchases are unplanned, according to a 2016 study by the National Association of Convenience Stores.
- The average c-store shopper spends 34 seconds in the hot dispensed beverage category, according to a 2014 MegaStudy of 50 million shoppers by VideoMining.
- Despite our finicky ways, consumers today can become and stay loyal. Last year, U.S. customer loyalty memberships topped 3 billion for the first time, a 26% increase over the past two years, according to Reuters.
- The No. 1 element that customers identify as creating a café experience across demographics is Wi-Fi, according to a national research study by Food Concepts Inc.
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