Green Mountain (GMCR) Pressured on Tim Hortons (THI) Snub

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) shares are slightly lower Thursday morning, as one key coffee, doughnut, and snack company opted to do business with its competition.

According to a news release earlier, Canadian quick-service restaurant giant Tim Hortons (NYSE: THI) decided to start selling its premium brand coffee through TASSIMO, the Kraft (Nasdaq: KFT)-developed brand.

TASSIMO systems are in direct competition with Green Mountain's Keurig Systems. TASSIMO even has a comparison page on its website.

To many in the U.S., Tim Hortons might not seem like a big deal, but here's a few fast-facts:

• Annual revs expected to be $3.13 billion in 2012, $3.38 billion in 2013;
  
• Market cap of over $8 billion;
  
• As of July 1st, 2012, Tim Hortons had 4,071 systemwide restaurants, including 3,326 in Canada, 734 in the United States and 11 in the Gulf Cooperation Council;
  
• From Tim Hortons: "According to the Coffee Association of Canada, in 2011 close to 75% of coffee cups in Canada were consumed at home."; and
  
• Kraft says there are 950,000 TASSIMO systems in Canada.

So, its a large account by many standards. Tim Hortons is basically as big as Panera (Nasdaq: PNRA) and Dunkin' Brands (Nasdaq: DNKN) combined.

Shares of Green Mountain are about 0.3 percent lower ahead of the bell.

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