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The Week in Coffee: 9-15 March 2026

Your weekly round-up of 5 essential coffee industry stories you won’t want to miss...

Your weekly round-up of 5 essential coffee industry stories you won’t want to miss...

  • Westrock Coffee is taking on the $40bn US RTD coffee market
  • Cotti Coffee is ramping up European expansion
  • Tim Hortons made a major announcement for the UK and Ireland market
  • Dunkin’ could return to public markets five years after Roark Capital took it private
  • Pickup Coffee looks like a strong investment opportunity in the booming Filipino branded coffee shop market

1. Three years and $360m later, is Westrock ready to conquer the US RTD coffee market?

Westrock Coffee has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to become the go-to producer of ready-to-drink coffee in the US. After successive years of heavy losses, 2026 will show if its big bet has paid off.

Westrock CEO Scott Ford (right) raising an RTD coffee at the opening of its new RTD facility in Conway, Arkansas, in June 2024 | Photo credit: Westrock Coffee

In November 2022, Westrock Coffee broke ground on a new 524,000sq ft production site in Conway, Arkansas – reportedly the largest roast to ready-to-drink (RTD) manufacturing facility in the world.

Investing in scaled RTD production early was undoubtedly a smart move. By some forecasts, the US RTD coffee market will be worth more than $40bn by 2030. But the sizeable investment has weighed heavily on Westrock’s balance sheet.

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