7-Eleven Elevating Food & Beverage Drives Sales

Success does leave clues Amazon’s “Day One” reminding every employee to think of ‘today’ as day one of the company and how you can help make it better for consumers so it last.  Well, 7-Eleven has 66,579 locations around the world.  Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes the team at 7-Eleven is doing a lot of things right.

Once again,7-Eleven Inc. has been named the 2018 Hot Beverages Innovator of the Year by Convenience Store News.  With over11,800 locations in North America, this shows that its role as an industry leader is far from over according to Johnson.

For some time 7-Eleven has been adding single-origin, sustainably sourced brews. Late in 2017, the retailer headed south to the Cajamarca region of Peru for a Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee made with 100-percent Arabic beans. (Note: The Rainforest Alliance is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods.)

7-Elevens Peruvian coffee has citrus notes complemented by vanilla, cinnamon and berry undertones. The hand-picked beans are grown in the high Andes Mountains of Peru. They are then authentically roasted to a medium level for a smooth, rich taste.

Raj Kapoor, 7-Eleven’s senior vice president of fresh food and proprietary beverages stated "Today’s coffee-drinkers are more sophisticated and, in addition to wanting a great-tasting cup of coffee, many also are looking for something extra…Millennials, in particular, want coffee crops that are sustainably grown, sourced directly from small farms, and made from single-origin beans rather than blends."

Prior to introducing the Peruvian brew, 7-Eleven featured LTOs of single-sourced coffee from Matagalpa, Nicaragua and Chiapas, Mexico. In addition, the retailer’s popular 100-percent Colombian coffee is now made with Rainforest Alliance Certified single-origin beans.

What’s more, in April of this year, 7-Eleven went to Africa to source the first limited-time coffee available under its new Seven Reserve brand of fresh-brewed premium coffees. The Seven Reserve Africa Blend is a 50-50 combination of 100-percent Rainforest Alliance Certified Arabica beans cultivated on small farms in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

The CS News Foodservice Advisory Council members were impressed with how 7-Eleven is introducing all these new coffees from exotic locales known for producing fine coffee and so was the team at Foodservice Solutions®. They also gave credit to 7-Eleven for working with Conservation International to set measurable corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals to reduce its environmental footprint. As part of its CSR objectives, 7-Eleven says it will continue to seek out responsibly sourced coffees, and other products and packaging with less environmental impact. Leaders are dynamic not static.  7-Eleven continues to lead.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant