Walmart to sell a new single-serve beverage maker

Esio Beverage Co., a drinks-system maker, may begin selling a single-serve beverage machine this year at retailers, including Walmart stores in the U.S.

Esio would compete with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.’s Keurig brewer.

An article in Busines Week said that Walmart may begin selling an Esio single-serve hot and cold beverage maker at its stores as soon as this spring.

“We have a number of retailers that we’re in the process of signing and have been meeting with for months,” Frank Leonesio, founder and principal owner of closely held Esio, said in the article. He declined to confirm which retailers Esio is working with.

“This will be the first beverage system designed to fill the niche in the hot and cold ready-to-drink space,” Leonesio said. The machines will be priced between $199 and $249, with juice, coffee and sports drink making pouches fitting inside the machines retailing between $4.99 and $7.99.

The drink pouches will be branded; the company declined to name the brands being used.

Analysts said Esio’s introduction would be a game changer in the single-serve category.