Burger King to use Seattle’s Best coffeeBurger King to use Seattle’s Best coffee

Lisa Jennings

MIAMI Burger King restaurants across the United States will begin offering Starbucks-owned Seattle’s Best Coffee by September in a move that could ramp up the long-simmering quick-service coffee wars.

In an agreement announced Tuesday by Miami-based Burger King Corp. and Seattle-based Seattle’s Best Coffee, about 7,250 Burger King units will offer the premium fresh-brewed coffee, available hot or iced, with the option of vanilla or mocha flavor and whipped topping. Recommended prices for the coffee drinks will range from between $1 and to $2.79, BK said.

Burger King said the deal would further enhance the No. 2 burger chain’s breakfast program.

“With over forty years of heritage in premium coffee, Seattle’s Best Coffee brings a high-quality, great tasting cup of coffee to Burger King restaurant guests in the U.S.,” said John Schaufelberger, Burger King senior vice president of global product marketing and innovation. “The addition of Seattle’s Best Coffee expands on our Have It Your Way brand promise by offering our guests even more beverage options and strengthens our ability to remain competitive in a continuously changing industry.”

Seattle’s Best will replace Burger King’s current BK Joe coffee program, which was an earlier upgrade from standard coffee and launched in 2007.

Last year McDonald’s entered into the premium coffee game with McCafe, the espresso-based beverage program now at 11,000 of the chain’s 14,000 domestic locations. Premium coffee moves, from McDonald’s to Bruegger’s, are mostly aimed at cutting into Starbucks Corp.’s dominate marketshare, sources have said.

It also is a way to spark sales at breakfast, a daypart that has been hard hit by rising unemployment rates.

Last month, Starbucks chairman and chief executive Howard Schultz described the company’s Seattle’s Best as a “hidden treasure in terms of its mass appeal,” saying the secondary brand offered new opportunities in the franchising of retail stores as well as foodservice distribution.

Seattle’s Best coffee is served in roughly 9,000 Subway restaurants across the country, for example, and in an estimated 15,000 other locations, including restaurants, college campuses, hotels, airlines and cruise lines.

Starbucks also has recently debuted Seattle’s Best-branded canned drinks in retail stores. The company also operates or franchises more than 550 Seattle’s Best cafes and kiosks.

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].