The US beverage manufacturer says its three-year investment programme is beginning to deliver, with new RTD and single-serve capacity supporting revenue growth, narrowing losses and a stronger pipeline of brand partners
Westrock Coffee has moved into the next phase of its growth plan, reporting its fifth consecutive quarter of year-on-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA and generating positive free cash flow earlier than expected.
The Arkansas-based coffee roaster, packager and supplier posted second-quarter net sales of $305.7m, up 8.8% from the same period last year. Its net loss narrowed to $13.7m from $21.6m compared to a year ago, while its operating loss fell to $1.4m from $15m.
Adjusted EBITDA, Westrock’s preferred measure of underlying profitability, rose 38.9% to $21.3m.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Pledger said the figures showed “continued momentum across our platform”. He added that Beverage Solutions sales rose 16.8% to $243.9m, with adjusted EBITDA up 12.7% to $22.2m.
Gross profit fell 8.8% to $37.7m, however, as depreciation from the Conway assets and non-cash adjustments weighed on the quarter.
The quarter also marked a significant milestone for a company that has spent the last three years building out its manufacturing base.
Westrock invested approximately $360m in new RTD and single-serve facilities, including its 524,000-square-foot Conway, Arkansas site, which it describes as the world’s largest roast-to-RTD manufacturing facility.
“The platform we spent the last three years building no longer requires capital. Rather, it is a generator of cash,” said CEO and co-founder Scott Ford. Westrock generated $20.2m in free cash flow during the quarter and was cash-flow positive for the first half of the year, one quarter ahead of its previous schedule.
Conway is now contributing across multiple beverage channels. Ford said Beverage Solutions growth was led by higher volumes of RTD cans, glass bottles and multi-serve formats, with demand coming from both existing and new brand partners.
The company is also supplying packaged coffee and single-serve cups, while expanding into adjacent categories.
Pledger said growth was supported by “new customer wins in our flavours, extracts, and ingredients business, including the launch of a lemonade refreshers program”. Ford said the pipeline now includes refreshers, energy and high-protein drinks, as well as functional and nutraceutical single-serve cups.
Single-serve coffee volumes increased 9% year-on-year when excluding a customer lost through industry consolidation. Ford said Westrock is growing at roughly four times the rate of the overall single-serve cup market, with replacement volumes from new customers expected to begin arriving late this year and build through 2027.
The company says its expanded capacity is helping it win business across multiple product lines. “We are across the board winning share in every single category that we play in,” Ford told investors. He said customers are initially approaching Westrock for one product, then expanding their relationship after seeing the company’s manufacturing, sourcing and risk-management capabilities.
Notably, in July Westrock Coffee struck a major ready-to-drink partnership with Italian coffee illycaffè for the US market.
Westrock expects further growth without another major construction project. Ford said recent can-format wins should make Conway an increasingly important contributor to profitability through the rest of 2026 and into next year. The company is also developing four new format lines this year and has eight products in development that it expects to launch over the next 24 months, provided they are supported by committed customer demand.
With its heavy investment phase largely complete, Westrock reaffirmed its 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90m to $100m. Pledger said the company’s priorities are now to sell remaining capacity, manage its customer mix and improve operations across its plants.
Ford said the business is “on the precipice of becoming a very, very different business than the one that we have been”.
The next test will be turning the Conway platform’s growing sales pipeline into sustained profit growth, while using cash generation to reduce debt rather than begin another costly expansion cycle.
