Office coffee machines come in such an enormous
variety these days that choosing the right one for your office can
be a real headache. Do you go for fresh coffee or instant drinks,
fully automatic or self serve, coin operated, or free vend? And
what about cold drinks, do you stick with the water cooler or go
for can vending systems or syrup based machines?
Choosing an office coffee machine is not like choosing a
photocopier. Drinks machines need daily care and sanitising by a
designated member of staff and regular servicing by professional
engineers. The ingredients will need to be topped up daily, cash
collected and accounted for and supplies ordered well in
advance.
Your choice should initially be governed by the number of staff you
wish to serve with the machine, taking into account extra drinks
required by visitors and customers. A general rule of thumb is to
assume 3 hot drinks per day per office worker if he has to pay for
the drinks himself (coin-controlled) or double that if you intend
to have the machine on free-vend. If fact, there are now hybrid
type machines that allow you to offer staff so many free drinks per
day and over and above that they have to pay but that is best left
to the discussion with the salesman from the drinks company.
Once you have a ball park figure for the number of drinks required
per day, the next thing to decide is whether to go for fresh tea
and coffee or instant drinks. Machines serving instant coffee, tea
and chocolate drinks are the cheapest to buy, service and maintain
as well as having a lower cost per cup for each drink served. The
fresh-brew option gives superb tasting drinks but generally need
much more in the way of servicing and day to day care. With the
latter option a member of staff can be trained to look after the
basic maintenance duties of the machine but it is likely to take
perhaps up to an
hour a day of their time.
The next thing to decide is whether to go free vend or have staff
and visitors pay for their drinks. Free vend is a great perk to
give your staff and visitors but obviously comes with considerable
cost, although you may find better productivity because of it
especially as it avoids time waiting for kettles to boil, brewers
to finish etc that might otherwise be the case.
With coin controlled versions you can set the vend price to cover
the cost of the machine, maintenance and ingredients to break even
or maybe make a profit. (Make sure you account for VAT or sales tax
on the selling price of the drinks as many companies forget to do
this). Most models of drinks machines have a management switch to
toggle between free vend and coin controlled supply – this is a
useful feature and many companies are choosing to switch over to
free vend for the early starters and after hour workers, but have
standard coin control during normal hours thereby rewarding the
more dedicated and punctual staff.
Perhaps the final thing to consider before calling the drinks
company is the position of the machine. This will of course depend
upon the layout of your office. Do you want one main central
position where all the drinks are served from a larger machine, or
perhaps have two or three smaller machines in more convenient
locations?
Many companies are choosing the latter more informal approach,
perhaps having several pour over type fresh coffee machines
together with water coolers. Again this has pros and cons - Many
drinks companies will provide free loan coffee brewers so long as
you buy the coffee from them so this can be a cheap option, but
this is balanced by the restricted drinks available and the
potential for pilferage.
In summary there is a great deal of choice available for your
choice of office drinks machine. However it is best to consider
four main things before calling the company.
1/ The approximate number of drinks served per day
2/ Instant or fresh coffee
3/ Free vend or coin control
4/ Position and access to the machine
With these 4 things decided upon before-hand you will be in a much
better position when you start asking for quotations from your
local drinks machine supplier.
Written by Fenton Wayne - (Fenton Wayne is an independent advisor
in the coffee and vending trade where he has over 25 years
experience. This article has been submitted to and distributed
by www.submityourarticle.com)