McLane Fresh brand CupZa! recognized for excellence in hot beverage category

TEMPLE, Texas — McLane Company Inc., one of the nation’s largest distributors and an industry-leading partner to retail and restaurant brands nationwide, was recently named a 2024 Category Captain by Convenience Store News for their new McLane Fresh beverage brand, CupZa!.

CupZa! offers a satisfying variety of high-quality, on-trend beverages including hot coffee, cappuccino, cold brew, nitro cold brew, and several refreshing teas and lemonades to retailers.

“The McLane Fresh team goes above and beyond to create new solutions for our customers, and we are honored to receive this recognition for CupZa!,” said Jon Cox, vice president of retail foodservice at McLane. “At McLane, we strive to make retail foodservice not only possible but advantageous to every retailer who wants to implement it. I look forward to seeing CupZa! and the McLane Fresh family of brands grow and continue to delight customers as the landscape of retail foodservice evolves.”

Like other McLane Fresh brands, CupZa! was designed specifically with retailers in mind, offering seamless implementation, merchandising and marketing, with a high level of customization and ongoing support to serve retailers of all sizes in any market. Product selection can be tailored to align with current category trends, with intuitive equipment such as touchscreen brewers eliminating the need for a barista or extensive training to offer fresh, artisan beverages.

Category Captains winners were selected based on criteria including product innovation; a demonstrated commitment to meeting the specific needs of retail customers; creativity in merchandising, marketing and promotion; use of consumer insights to drive sales; efficacy in lifting sales for the entire product category; innovative category management tools; and fact-based evidence of market-specific or account-specific results.

McLane offers customizable solutions for retail and restaurant customers from ordering and fulfillment to equipment and in-store merchandising, aiming to eliminate barriers of entry for smaller retailers and solve logistical challenges for large chains. More information on CupZa! and other convenience store solutions from McLane is available at mclaneco.com/cstore-solutions/mclane-fresh. To learn more about McLane and its retail, restaurant and e-commerce solutions, visit mclaneco.com.