Kraft Heinz gave Maxwell House its first new product in a decade — and share gains
A new coffee chief revived the 131-year-old brand with instant iced lattes and IHOP lines, delivering its first market-share gain since 2016.
What was changed
Maxwell House was once America's top coffee brand. By 2023 the 131-year-old Kraft Heinz property ranked third even within instant coffee — behind Nestle's Nescafe and JM Smucker's Folgers, per Euromonitor International — while consumers defected to espresso machines, French presses, cold brew and cafe chains like Starbucks and Dunkin'. Kraft Heinz had mulled selling the coffee unit in 2019 and left it out of its turnaround, which centered on brands like Oscar Mayer.
The unit got a leader of its own revival: Tiffin Groff, who joined from Peet's Coffee about a year and a half before the July 2023 launch, described 'a kind of turning point in interest in rejuvenating the Kraft Heinz coffee business.' Under her, Maxwell House launched Iced Latte with Foam — its first new product in nearly a decade and, Kraft Heinz says, the first of its kind: one packet, a cup of cold water, a spoon, and foam. Six packets cost $6.99, about $1.17 a latte.
The revival has numbers behind it: 2022 marked the first year Maxwell House gained market share since 2016, and the IHOP-branded coffee line Groff launched in April 2023 is already attracting younger consumers than the loyal Maxwell House drinker. An IHOP iced latte follows next year, with updated packaging and a new tagline — 'Live Life to the Last Drop' — coming for Maxwell House in 2024.
Why it worked
Home coffee habits had grown sophisticated — espresso machines, cold brew makers — while Maxwell House's loyal drinkers aged with the brand.
Cold coffee is where the growth is: Starbucks says over half its US drink sales are cold, yet only 7% of at-home coffee is cold, per NPD Group.
New leadership from Peet's reframed coffee from a potential sell-down candidate into a unit worth rejuvenating.
The $1.17-per-cup price undercuts cafe lattes while the foam format copies what consumers pay coffee shops a premium for.
What can be applied
A neglected legacy brand can still climb if someone owns it: new leadership, a format the category lacks, and a price tuned to the moment.
Aftermath
As of the July 2023 launch, the iced latte line was available nationwide at major retailers and on Amazon in vanilla, hazelnut and caramel. Next came IHOP-branded iced lattes in 2024, plus a packaging refresh and the 'Live Life to the Last Drop' tagline for Maxwell House.