RealCup sold 25 million coffee, so where is their coffee shop?

by chee leng-Oncoffeemakers
(Singapore)

RealCup sold more than 25 million coffee, they do not have a coffee shop. They do not need to, as their products can be used on Keurig.

RealCup using its century experience in coffee, produces a single serve cup that optimizes the brewing process, and it is compatible with Green Mountain Coffee Roaster (GMCR) Keurig coffee brewer.

The compatibility is important and I think it is one of the reason why they are selling so many coffee.

I do not doubt the technology or even the quality coffee that they are able to produce. It is a given that you have to be good to compete in today's coffee market.

Quality is not a competitive advantage, it is a requirement.

The competitive advantage of RealCup in this case is the ability to be used on Keurig coffee machine.

Keurig is the market leader in single serve coffee machine, there are millions of such a machine out there in the market.

Just by being compatible, RealCup immediately have more than a million customers that are very likely to be buying their products.

My $0.02

Personally, I think being compatible with the current machine, whether it is Nespresso or Keurig, by itself is a strategy.

Using L'Oro as an example, they have their own coffee, Douwe Egberts was the oldest coffee roaster in the world, but yet they choose to product L'Oro that is compatible with Nespresso.

This lead to lawsuits but also high profit and sales for Sara Lee.

RealCup make money because Keurig customer base is huge. And it is the same for L'Oro, ECC, Nexpod and so many other companies.

This might not be good news for the company producing the machine, but it is good for the consumers. They get more choices (most of the time, at a lower cost).

In the long run, it is good for the market too.

Being forced to look for alternative source for profit, leads to innovation. There will be better technology, more innovation when companies sales and profits are threaten.

For example, we are already seeing an innovation from Keurig in their Vue.

So, what is your thought? Do you think it is good to have compatible cups, capsules for machines such as Nespresso, Keurig etc?