Coffee Meets Tech: Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters Expands into Vending & Smart Kegerators

    ARLINGTON, VA, March 11, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters (CWJ), the Mid-Atlantic specialty coffee and Nitro Cold Brew brand has secured a partnership with Smart Beverage Technologies (SBT), the inventor of the Kegerator Vending Machine (KVM). Investment in SBT's patent-pending technology will allow CWJ to expand its product offering, service new customer segments, and improve efficiencies along the coffee company's last-mile refrigeration supply chain, all while utilizing the latest advancements in telemetry and workflow automation.

Aggressively pursuing a vending technology sales approach will enable CWJ to reach a wider audience through the placement of units outside of the office vertical, allow customers to transfer or share the cost of on-tap beverages with the end consumer through the unit's self-pay functionality, and provide consumers with access to craft beverages 24/7. With the ability to remotely monitor beverage quantity, temperature, and gas pressure levels, CWJ representatives are able to increase service standards, improve safety, and provide a seamless customer experience. The company's CEO, Robert Peck, comments on why vending is the future for CWJ. "Consumers crave a variety of premium craft beverages throughout their day. Traditionally, you've only been able to get cold brew and kombucha from coffee shops and grocery stores, but there isn't always a store nearby. Beverage companies are missing out on a lot of opportunities to reach customers outside of traditional retail locations. Our on-tap program with free flow and vending capabilities bridges that gap. It allows us to provide premium beverages on tap, wherever is most convenient. We are creating a new channel and route-to-market to reach beverage consumers."

To support the partnership, Alex Kilkka recently joined the CWJ team as Chief Technology Officer. Alex, formerly the CEO of a software development consulting company, built out cwj.io, an internal platform used to monitor and deploy the KVMs in the field. Kilkka comments, "With the rollout of these smart machines, CWJ is tapping into the Internet of Things and enabling game-changing capabilities - like self-ordering refills and real-time analytics."

Widespread success has already been seen on the West Coast by SBT's founder and CEO, O'Neil Sawh with beverage partners Blackbird Beverages and Kombucha on Tap. "Kegged beverage companies are now able to take their traditional wholesale kegged business and incrementalize and monetize individual sales from a keg, versus selling an entire keg to one customer. The incrementialization of a keg allows the manufacturer of a liquid to create more value than selling the entire keg under the old wholesale model."

Consumers in the Mid-Atlantic will soon start to see KVMs pop up in their apartment buildings, sports clubs, university campuses, and other locations, making Nitro Cold Brew coffee and other premium craft beverages accessible to all.

For more information on CWJ's Kegerator Vending Machines, visit KegVending.com.

About Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters (CWJ)
Fostering his mother Julia's passion for coffee roasting, Robert Peck founded CWJ in 2012 and has grown the business with his partners to become one of the region's most premium specialty coffee programs, specializing in award-winning Nitro Cold Brew coffee. Having established both a retail and wholesale presence in the DC Metro Area, the company added a Nitro Cold Brew office program to its list of business lines in 2014 and has continued to expand its services across the Mid-Atlantic, now serving over 350 office customers. Find out more about the company at commonwealthjoe.com.

# # #