Amazon brandNov 5
Patented-Roast Coffee Brand with Grocery Distribution
A coffee brand built on a patented roasting process sells on Amazon, its own site and Walmart, and wholesale to over 700 Publix stores.
- Ask
- $3.54M
- Profit
- $884K
- Multiple
- 4.0x
- Ask
- $3.54M
- Revenue
- $3.34M
- Profit
- $884K
- Margin
- 26%
- Multiple
- 4.0x
- Age
- 12 yrs (Jan 2014)
How it rates
ValuationHigh
Other Amazon brands we've tracked mostly ask 2.2–2.9x profit, or 2.0–3.1x adjusted for the owner's workload and its size; this one asks 4.0x.
Durability
12 years old with 4,800 subscribers, but about three-quarters of sales go through Amazon.
Hands-off
The seller works about 50 hours a week; how much is brand work rather than the factory isn't stated.
Why it's interesting
- Repeat buyers bring in over 85% of monthly revenue on Amazon and its own site, and 4,800 Amazon Subscribe & Save users show 89.6% retention after 30 days.
- The listing describes it as the only US brand in its corner of the coffee market, made with a patented roast that the seller would keep supplying under contract.
- Sales started in January 2014, and the brand has an email list of more than 40,000 alongside 101 product variants.
What to watch
- The sale covers the brand, trademarks and sales channels only; the seller keeps the factory, its roughly 25 US staff and the related IP, and would supply the coffee under contract, so the buyer would depend on one manufacturer for a patented product.
- Publix's share of the non-Amazon 24% isn't stated; a single grocery chain could be a large customer whose terms the buyer doesn't control.
- The seller reports 50 hours a week, and it isn't clear how much of that is brand work a buyer would take on versus running the factory.
Ask the seller
- Does the roasting patent transfer or is it licensed, and what price, length, exclusivity and exit terms does the supply contract give the buyer?
- What share of revenue comes from Publix, and is that relationship under a written contract that moves to the buyer?
- Of the 50 weekly hours, how many go to marketing, listings and channel work rather than manufacturing?
Growth plays
- Use the Publix placement as proof when pitching other regional grocery chains, adding wholesale accounts beyond a single chain.
- Move part of the 40,000-person email list onto subscriptions on its own site, shifting repeat buyers away from Amazon's fees.
Nov 5Added to Acumen Wire