One of the stories I missed while I was out of the country in December was the shuttering of Drinkworks.
What makes the announcement so unexpected was, overall, things seemed to be generally going well: the company was expanding nationally, sales seemed on the uptick, and they’d even just announced the newest generation drink appliance in October of 2021.
Then, less than two months later, the joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and Keurig Dr. Pepper announced it was ceasing operations.
I don’t have to tell you how unusual it is for a company to announce a new product and then shut down just months later. And, now, almost a month after the news, we really don’t have a good answer for what happened, which is why it’s still worth asking: what the heck happened?
Generally, what that type of quick about-face tells me is that the higher-ups – and by that I mean the two companies involved in the joint venture funding – decided the project wasn’t working and pulled the plug.
So what does ‘not working’ mean? It could be any number of things: Appliance or beverage pod sales weren’t meeting forecasts. Customer satisfaction was low. The project was sucking up too many resources. Maybe the two companies didn’t like working together or their strategies diverged. As I said, it could be anything and we may never know (unless, of course, a former insider wants to tell us. Please reach out if you’d like to do so privately).
The end of Drinkworks also begs the question: is this the end for home cocktail appliances? Bartesian – and now Black and Decker – would argue no. As for me, I’m not sure I want a pod-making machine, but I would take a voice-enabled cocktail marking robot.
Watch my video look at the demise of Drinkworks below.
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