HeatGenie Becomes HeatGen, Expects Self-Heating Cans on Shelves This Summer

HeatGen press photo

Nearly eight months after snagging $6 million from investors to bring its nine-year investment total up to $9.6 million, self-heating-can maker HeatGen has abandoned its former HeatGenie moniker while targeting the RTD coffee sector.

With the new HeatGen look, logo and tagline — “Powered By HeatGen” — the company is making a concerted effort to reach sellers of RTD coffee drinks, offering a hot twist. In fact, it is a literal twist of the HeatGen proprietary heater affixed to the can, plus two minutes time, that takes a beverage from room temperature to hot, according to the company. 

Outside of the heating taking place through a flame-free chemical reaction, HeatGen has historically kept a tight lid on the specifics of self-heating technology, so to speak. Numerous other companies have attempted to bring self-heating single-serve products to market over the years — including brands such as Nescafé and Wolfgang Puck —  with little to no success. At least one U.S. company, Hotshot Coffee, has brought single-serve canned hot coffee to market, although that system requires a constantly running “Hotbox”.

With the rebranding, it appears HeatGen is poised to finally introduce its cans to the marketplace, although it remains to be seen whether new coffee companies are willing to adopt the technology as the next hot trend.

“We are proud to introduce a new brand identity for HeatGen at a pivotal point in the company’s timeline,” Mark Turner, HeatGen president and CEO, said in an announcement of the rebranding today. “The logo features the letter H contained within a flame, conveying the warming nature of the technology. The name HeatGen speaks to both a new generation of consumers seeking convenience and portability and conveys the power of the product to generate heat on demand. This branding evolution sets the stage for a go-to-market strategy implementation. In short order, manufacturers will benefit from this visual differentiator as consumers begin to recognize and seek out the ‘POWERED BY HEATGEN’ graphic.”

The company says it expects the first HeatGen product to be available “on shelf this summer.”