Cold Brew Manufacturer BKON Gets $3 Million from GoodWest Industries

Two BKON Storm industrial brewers at the company’s production facility outside Philadelphia, in Moorestown, New Jersey. Courtesy photo.

New Jersey-based cold brew manufacturing company BKON has secured a $3 million investment led by Pennsylvania-based beverage packaging and dispensing company GoodWest Industries.

In an announcement today, BKON described the investment as a Series A funding round and said the money will be used to expand production capacity at its Moorestown, New Jersey, manufacturing center.

BKON burst onto the specialty coffee scene with the introduction of its negative-pressure-centered BKON Craft Brewer in 2014 before receiving a $2.5 million funding round to develop and produce its industrial cold brew production system called the BKON Storm. The system incorporates BKON’s proprietary “reverse atmospheric infusion” process, called RAIN.

BKON Founders Dean (left) and Lou Vastardis. Courtesy photo.

The company, founded by brothers Lou and Dean Vastardis, said that its cold coffee brewing business grew by some 300% in 2020, including product development and manufacturing for at least 16 regional or national specialty coffee brands. BKON said a next generation of the BKON Storm brewing equipment will quadruple output at the Moorestown facility, while the new Storm-XL system will also enable commercialization of the company’s Coldstretto product, which was also introduced in 2017.

BKON has already been partnering with GoodWest, based in Douglasville, Pennsylvania, for its KegX bag-in-box one-way keg system for finished cold brew and cold brew concentrates.

A specialist in aseptic packaging designed to extend the shelf-life of products, GoodWest offers a number of cold coffee products under brand names such as Java Creations, Java Works and Skinny Syrups, after acquiring the latter brand in 2019. With a focus on the convenience store and gas stations market, GoodWest underwent a complete rebranding and has introduced several new brands since the appointment of Rick Lawlor as CEO in 2017.

BKON-produced bag-in-box consumer cold brew products. Courtesy photo.

“In all my years of experience, I have never witnessed a company execute its commercialization plans with the vigor and win record like BKON,” Lawlor, who will now hold a board position for BKON, said in the announcement today. “GoodWest was eager to lead this investment in order to accelerate BKON’s continued growth.”