There is serious debate among people about what is the most consumed beverage in the world after water. Some say it is tea, while others say it is coffee. But no matter who wins in the end, certain facts can not change.
For instance, more than 70 countries produce coffee. Similarly, the global coffee sector is an approximately $443 billion industry.
So the question is, who runs this billion-dollar industry?
Just like every other sector, there are key players in the coffee industry that make various types, modes, and flavors of coffee accessible to the world. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the top 15 coffee brands in the world.
Table of Contents
1. Starbucks
Starbucks undoubtedly reigns over the global coffee industry as a giant. It was founded as a coffee bean store in 1971 by Gordon Bowker, Zev Siegl, and Jerry Baldwin. However, they sold the company to Howard Schultz in the 1980s, who changed this store into a coffee shop. Schultz’s efforts pushed the company toward the immense success it enjoys today.
Products and Services
As of Nov 2022, Starbucks is valued at $114.27 B, making it the world’s 111th most valuable company. This is not a small achievement for a coffee company. In recent years, the brand has seen more success due to its clever advertising and product placement campaigns. Starbucks has over 34,000 stores worldwide, making it the second most popular coffee brand worldwide.
Starbucks sells a variety of products through its franchises, such as:
- Whole-bean coffee
- Espresso
- Low-calorie and sugar-free drinks
- Non-dairy milk products
- Seasonal drinks
- Location-specific drinks
- Snacks and baked goods
2. Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee was started as a coffee roaster in London by Sergio Costa in 1971. At that time, the brand sold coffee to local caterers. Gradually, the company expanded and opened its first store in London in 1981.
Today, Costa Coffee is a popular coffee brand and one of the largest in Britain. It is also the second highest-selling coffee brand worldwide. With more than 4000 stores worldwide, Costa Coffee has a presence in about 31 countries.
Products and Services
Some of the key products by Costa Coffee are:
- Hot and cold coffee
- Hot and cold teas
- Ice blends
- Sandwiches
- Cakes and pastries
- Snacks
Costa Coffee is considered by many to be a premium coffee brand that has managed to maintain loyal customers and brand image quite well. The brand was also the first to deliver coffee via drones.
3. McCafe
McCafe merely started as an experiment in 1993 to bring more foot traffic to the McDonald’s store on Swanston Street, Melbourne, Australia. However, today it is one of the leading coffee brands by the world-famous fast food chain McDonald’s.
Products and Services
The McCafe brand capitalized highly on the presence of McDonald’s in many countries and locations around the world. This attached it to the already successful brand and made customer acquisition easier from the get-go.
McCafe is not exclusively a coffee brand. Instead, it uses the model of the coffee chain business where other products like beverages and snacks are also sold.
4. Dunkin Donuts
Bill Rosenberg started Dunkin Donuts as Open Kettle in 1948. At that time, it was a restaurant that sold donuts and coffee to its customers in Boston. However, he changed the name to Dunkin’ Donuts in 1950 and started selling franchises to other people in 1955.
Products and Services
Dunkin’ Donuts has 11000+ restaurants around the world. Dunkin Donuts was the first to introduce the combination of donuts and coffee, which became an instant success. Apart from various types of coffee and donuts, the brand also sells bagels and munchkins.
Just in the Donuts industry, Dunkin’ Donuts covers a considerable 25% market share, in combination with brands like Krispy Kreme and Tim Horton’s. This gives a sizable backing to this coffee brand.
5. Tim Hortons
Tim Horton, an NHL player, founded this famous Canadian coffee company in 1949, but it didn’t always sell coffee. The first Tim Horton Restaurant in North Bay, Ontario, sold hamburgers. However, seeing the popularity of cafe-style establishments, the company gradually shifted to selling donuts and coffee.
Products and Services
Tim Hortons has a huge cover over the Canadian market, as it shows some of the highest turnover figures in Canada. It is a multinational fast food brand that sells various products like:
- Hot and cold coffee
- Donuts
- Hot chocolate
- Soft drinks
- Baked goods(croissants, tea biscuits, cookies, muffins)
Tim Hortons has impressive market penetration and brand awareness worldwide, making it a strong contender on this list.
6. Nescafe
Nescafe (Nestle+Cafe) is famous for its vast choices of instant coffee products. It is a coffee brand that Nestle started in 1930. Nestle introduced this project in Brazil to utilize the annual coffee harvest surplus. In a few years, Nescafe achieved success around the world as the go-to instant coffee brand.
Products and Services
The key strengths of Nescafe products that made the brand so successful are:
- They’re easily available around the world
- They’re a quick alternative to buying brewed coffee
- They’re usually cheaper
Apart from these strengths, Nescafe also owes its success to effective marketing and the considerable financial backing of the multinational parent brand Nestle.
7. Gloria Jean’s
Gloria Jean’s Coffee originated in 1979 as a small coffee and gift shop in Chicago, Illinois. Its founder was Gloria Jean Kvetko, but the company only became an international success once it sold its franchising rights to the global restaurant conglomerate Retail Food Group.
Products and Services
Today, the brand operates in over 40 countries with more than 900 franchises. In contrast to the success of being owned by a large restaurant group, the brand has faced obstacles due to political and food-related controversies. Despite these challenges, Gloria Jean’s is a famous coffee brand due to its gourmet coffee options, baked goods, and desserts.
8. Keurig
Keurig is a top coffee brand founded by college roommates Peter Dragone and John Sylvan in 1992. They experimented with the idea of developing single-serving coffee pods and a machine that could brew them so that people could have access to fresh coffee every single time.
Products and Services
The success of Keurig is evident from the fact that it holds an impressive 11.7% share of the coffee pod market. Some of the key products responsible for this success are:
- Keurig Trademark K-cup Brewing Systems
- Brewing system models
- Various beverage varieties
Keurig is a perfect example of how out-of-the-box thinking can push a company to become an industry leader.
9. Folgers
William H. Bovee founded Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills and hired J.A Folger as a carpenter to build the structure. With time, Folger saved enough money to first buy a part of the company and then gradually become a full partner in 1865. In 1872, Folger bought out the company and named it J.A. Folger& Co.
Products and Services
The Folger’s we know today is owned by the J.M Smucker Company and is famous for its ground coffee. The company started rapidly climbing the ladder of success after being acquired by P&G in 1963.
Today, the company sells ground, instant, and pod coffee to customers worldwide. It was also beating Starbucks in coffee cup sales at one point.
10. Maxwell House
Joel Owsley Cheek founded Maxwell House in 1892. He was a wholesale grocer, and he named the company after its first major customer, the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
Products and Services
The company is instantly recognizable because of its “good to the last drop” slogan and is one of the highest-selling coffee brands in the US.
Currently, Kraft Heinz owns the North American division, while JDE Peet’s owns the global division of the Maxwell House. The brand enjoys popularity because of its decaffeinated coffee products. The primary owner of Maxwell House in North America, The Kraft Heinz Company, has a market valuation of $47.65 B. This strong financial standing makes Maxwell House one of the most successful coffee brands today.
11. Eight O’clock
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) introduced Eight O’Clock as a coffee brand in 1859. Today, Eight O’Clock coffee is sold in grocery stores and supermarkets around the world.
Products and Services
In 2006, Tata Coffee acquired the brand with its manufacturing plant still intact in Landover, Maryland. The brand is widely preferred by various customers because of its long list of coffee options, such as French roast, decaf, hazelnut, Italian espresso, mocha, etc. This is the brand’s key strength, as it has an impressive list of almost 20 different types of coffee.
12. Nespresso Brand
Nespresso is yet another coffee brand/product by the Nestle group. The Nespresso is a pod brewing system invented by Eric Favre, a Nestle employee, in 1975. He noticed that more pumping could create better foam on an espresso in a coffee shop in Rome, Italy. Due to this, there were a large number of customers in the shop.
Products and Services
This observation prompted Eric Favre to develop a coffee-making system with the same pumping principle in mind.
Today, the product line under the Nespresso brand includes coffee machines sold directly to the customer, such as individuals, corporate offices, etc. The brand also produces various flavors of coffee pods and capsules to go with its coffee machines.
13. Gevalia
Gevalia is a Scandinavian coffee roastery that operates through home delivery and famous store chains like Walmart in North America. It was founded in 1853 in Sweden by the trading company Victor Theodore Engwall& Co KB.
The company ran highly successful advertising campaigns starting in the 1990s. These campaigns were based on the theme of “unexpected visitors” and helped push the brand to fame in Northern Europe.
Products and Services
Today, Gevalia is a subsidiary of Kraft Foods and sells products such as:
- 30+ coffee variants
- Keurig-compatible coffee pods
- Iced coffee
- Coffee packets
Apart from its marketing success, the brand enjoys loyal customers because of its rich taste and coffee that is sourced from various parts of the world.
14. Peet’s Coffee
Alfred Peet founded Peet’s Coffee in 1966 in California and introduced the North American market to dark roast blends like the Arabica and French roasts. It is now a well-established coffee roaster and retailer wholly owned by JAB Holding Company.
Products and Services
Peet’s coffee franchises have a traditional appeal and environment, which is evident in their layout and design. Peet’s Coffee owes its success to its roasted coffee range, which can be considered the singular highest-selling product for the brand.
Due to Alfred Peet’s status as the “Grandfather of Specialty Coffee,” the brand enjoys a premium reputation, making it one of the top coffee brands.
15. Lavazza
Lavazza is an Italian coffee brand founded by Luigi Lavazza and ran through a small grocery store in Turin in 1895. Over time, the store developed into a highly successful family-run business currently managed by the 3rd and 4th generations of the Lavazza family.
Products and Services
The unique selling point of this premium coffee brand lies in the fact that they import coffee from all the coffee centers of the world, like Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, etc.
This gives the brand a distinct edge and specialty over other coffee players. According to the company, 16 of the 20 million coffee-consuming families in Italy choose Lavazza.
Final Words
These companies built themselves from the ground up and used various product development strategies, marketing campaigns, and customer service techniques to reach where they are today. Learning about these things can be of immense value to a student of business or an entrepreneur.
