Insider Insight: Mother Parkers Bryan McCourt talks about convenience store coffee trends
Cold coffee studies indicate that its upward trend isn’t just seasonal. According to Circana Crest Canada data for the 12 months ending December 2025, more than half of coffee servings consumed by 18-to-24-year-olds in Canadian quick-service restaurants were cold, compared with roughly a quarter across all age groups. Customizable coffee is gaining a foothold among QSRs, but the pace and range of choices might not be sustainable for most small operators.
CSNC talks about coffee trends for convenience stores with Bryan McCourt, the chief commercial officer for Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee; we discussed how the data indicates operators might need to be able to serve both preferences.
Convenience Store News Canada: Convenience stores have traditionally been hot coffee destinations. How can c-store operators capture the crucial 18-to-24 demographic without losing their traditional hot coffee base?
Bryan McCourt: Hot coffee is still a core part of the convenience-store offer, especially in the morning. The opportunity for operators is to build around its core offerings and give customers more reasons to buy coffee throughout the day.
Our Complete Extract Solutions gives operators a practical way to add cold brew, iced coffee and other cold coffee options alongside their existing hot coffee program. The extracts are shelf-stable before opening and don’t require specialized brewing equipment.
It’s really about serving both customers: the person who wants a dependable hot coffee in the morning and the younger consumer looking for a customizable cold drink later in the day.
CSNC: With total Canadian QSR hot coffee flat or declining and cold coffee making up nearly a quarter of total servings, what is the risk to convenience retailers who delay building out a dedicated cold coffee or iced beverage program?
BM: The risk is that customers may go somewhere else. It’s that simple.
Cold coffee also gives operators a chance to grow beyond the traditional morning coffee run. It can be relevant at lunch, in the afternoon or as a treat. That means the opportunity isn’t simply to move an existing customer from hot coffee to cold coffee. It’s to create an additional beverage purchase.
Operators don’t need to chase every trend, but they do need to recognize a sustained shift in how people are consuming coffee. The longer they wait, the harder it may be to establish a distinctive offer after competitors have already built loyalty around their cold beverage programs.
Solving operational pain points
CSNC: Convenience store staff are already stretched thin with multi-category responsibilities. How does adopting shelf-stable extracts and aseptic processing reduce back-of-house labor and maintenance compared with traditional cold brew steeping or bean-to-cup machines?
BM: In convenience, simplicity matters. Store employees are already managing the register, foodservice, merchandising and a long list of other responsibilities. A beverage program can’t depend on a complicated process in the back room.
CSNC: Waste is a major hit to c-store margins. How do bag-in-box and pouch solutions help operators minimize the 29% beverage waste average that plagues away-from-home beverage programs?
BM: Technomic’s Away from Home Beverage Report, 2026 Update found that 29% of U.S. operators identified beverage waste as a leading challenge with their beverage programs. It is not an average beverage-waste rate.
Bag-in-box and pouch formats can help operators address that challenge by allowing them to prepare product closer to demand. They don’t have to brew a large batch and hope it sells within a set holding period.
That flexibility is especially useful for smaller stores, slower time of the day, or new cold coffee programs that are still building volume. Operators can begin with less product and prepare more as demand increases.
Waste will always depend on how the operator manages inventory and portions, but the format gives them more control.
CSNC: C-store backrooms and cooler spaces are tight. How does shelf-stable logistics work for operators who may lack extensive cold storage space for liquid inventory?
BM: It can be a meaningful advantage, especially in stores where every foot of cooler space has to earn its place.Operators don’t have to displace bottled beverages, fresh food or other refrigerated inventory simply to add a cold coffee program.
It can also make distribution easier across a chain. Ambient products provide more flexibility when stores have different layouts, sales volumes and storage capacity.
The real value is that operators can expand their beverage offer without automatically adding cold-chain infrastructure or putting more pressure on limited cooler space.
Private label growth vs. brand customization
CSNC: Many convenience chains are aggressively building out their proprietary food and beverage brands to compete with QSRs. How can a regional c-store chain develop a unique, proprietary cold coffee formulation rather than off-the-shelf liquid?
BM: A proprietary beverage should reflect the retailer’s brand and customer, not simply carry a different label.
C-store operators already have many of the adjacent consumer needs covered through dairy, sweeteners and other add-ins, as 94% of cold coffee consumers customize their beverage in some way.
CSNC: Cold beverage programs typically carry higher margins than hot drip coffee. What kind of ROI or profit-margin enhancement can convenience operators realistically expect when shifting volume toward cold coffee extract solutions?
BM: Every operator’s economics will be different, so we wouldn’t put one ROI or margin number against every program.
The business case usually comes down to a few practical factors: how much labour the program requires, whether new equipment is needed, how much product is wasted and how consistently stores manage portions and quality.
The other side of the equation is growth. Cold coffee can create new occasions, particularly later in the day and among younger consumers. That matters because the strongest opportunity isn’t simply moving a hot coffee customer to a cold drink. It’s generating a purchase that might not otherwise have happened.
Operators still need to model the program against their own pricing, volume and store economics.
CSNC: What emerging beverage trends or extract formats should c-store operators be prepping their stores for over the next three to five years?
BM: Cold coffee will remain important, but the larger trend is toward more variety, customization and flexibility.
Technomic’s Away from Home Beverage Report, 2026 Update forecasts that total cold coffee finished-gallon volume in U.S. foodservice will grow at a compound annual rate of 6.2% from 2025 to 2030.
For convenience operators, that supports investment in a platform that can evolve rather than one tied to a single drink. The same extract capability can support cold brew, iced coffee, concentrates and other coffee-based applications across different formats and service models.
The goal shouldn’t be to predict the one beverage that will win five years from now. It should be to build a flexible platform that makes it easier to test new products, respond to customers and scale the concepts that work.
