Walmart Launches New Coffee Counters With Modest Coffee

Coffee is a big deal for Walmart shoppers, especially when it comes to premium brands. Statista research estimates that coffee sales will grow at a compound annual rate of 3.1% through 2021. And as the nation’s largest retailer, Walmart is looking to keep up with trends in specialty coffee with exclusive product launches.

Craft coffee, draft coffee and fast coffee: Those are the hallmarks of LiftOff Coffee and Tea, which debuted inside a handful of North Texas Walmart stores last week. The Dallas-based company has teamed with Walmart to launch its counters in Mansfield, Garland, Rockwall and Carrollton stores, and Gainesville and Fort Worth stores are expected to open later.

It’s a small victory for the local roaster.

Back in April, Modest Coffee was on a national expansion plan that would have put their products on the shelves at Walmart. After a year of onboarding as a vendor with food broker Rucker Marketing, the company was selected for an offer to sell through Walmart’s online site. They were to produce 6,000 bags of coffee that would be shipped to a distributor’s warehouse and get paid once it was all done.

In the end, they were forced to cut ties with their broker and found a new one that would help them complete the order and start paying for their production. They had to essentially re-start their business and find a way to produce the coffee they needed to fulfill their contract in a fraction of the time, but they were grateful for the support from Walmart, their customers, their team members, and their roasting partners.