Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)

Our order processing and fulfillment systems may fail or limit user traffic, which could cause us to lose sales. Additionally, our reliance on a single order fulfillment company for our Keurig subsidiary’s home market exposes our Company to significant credit risk.

GMC processes all customer orders for our products through our order fulfillment facility in Waterbury, Vermont. We are dependent on our ability to maintain our computer and telecommunications equipment in this facility in effective working order and to protect against damage from fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure or similar events. In addition, growth of our customer base may strain or exceed the capacity of our systems and lead to degradations in performance or systems failure. We have experienced capacity constraints in the past that have resulted in decreased levels of service delivery such as increased customer call center wait times and delays in service to customers for limited periods of time. Although we continually review and consider upgrades to our order fulfillment infrastructure and provide for system redundancies to limit the likelihood of systems overload or failure, substantial damage to our systems or a systems failure that causes interruptions for a number of days could adversely affect our business. Additionally, if we are unsuccessful in updating and expanding our order fulfillment infrastructure our ability to grow may be constrained.

Keurig relies on an order fulfillment company to process the majority of its orders for the home market sold through retailers, including collection of all accounts receivable. Receivables from this order fulfillment company were approximately 36% of our consolidated accounts receivable balance at year end. Any material disruption in the operation of this third party company could adversely affect our business.

Our order processing and fulfillment systems may fail or limit user traffic, which could cause us to lose sales.

GMC processes all customer orders for our products through our order fulfillment facility in Waterbury, Vermont. We are dependent on our ability to maintain our computer and telecommunications equipment in this facility in effective working order and to protect against damage from fire, natural disaster, power loss, telecommunications failure or similar events. In addition, growth of our customer base may strain or exceed the capacity of our systems and lead to degradations in performance or systems failure. We have experienced capacity constraints in the past that have resulted in decreased levels of service delivery such as increased customer call center wait times and delays in service to customers for limited periods of time. Although we continually review and consider upgrades to our order fulfillment infrastructure and provide for system redundancies to limit the likelihood of systems overload or failure, substantial damage to our systems or a systems failure that causes interruptions for a number of days could adversely affect our business. Additionally, if we are unsuccessful in updating and expanding our order fulfillment infrastructure our ability to grow may be constrained.

Keurig relies on an order fulfillment company to process the majority of its orders for the home market sold through retailers, including collection of all accounts receivable. Any material disruption in the operation of this third party company could adversly affect our business.