The coffee stand business has turned into a must-have compartment of the filling station. Coffee drinks let chains generate huge revenues that can be compared with oil sales. However, a few business owners really know how to start a cafe at a gas station and launch a successful business.
Having a cafe at a gas station or a c-store is vital for modern gas stations. While the competition grows tougher, fuel sales are decreasing. For this reason, gas station owners are looking for alternative sources of revenues.
We are being told of how many great advantages coffee chains have in the global perspective. However, a few independent coffee shops are eager to join huge chains and lose their authentic and exclusive approach once and for all. Why is this happening? Are they mad to lose tons of revenues? Or is there any other reason for independent service providers to stay in the shadow of world’s biggest coffee chains like Starbucks? Let’s figure it out.
Amazon invested $13.7 billion in retail. The leading online shopping platform has teamed up with Whole Foods to launch focusing mainly on selling healthy organic products. The new project is witnessing its revival featuring increased sales mainly due to affordable costs. At the same time, Amazon has widened its own assortment and added a brand new product also known as Amazon Echo. What’s next? Will it be a coffee market?
Defining an industry is crucial for c-store chains as well as independent retailers. According to the latest report, the level of foodservice in the United States is not as high as it may seem. 89% of players are still on the basic level of their development able to offer only some fundamental products, snacks, drinks and customer service.
The world’s coffee giant seems to have serious intention to conquer the Chinese coffee market by means of mobile technologies. The company is launching its new “Sayitwith Starbucks” service in collaboration with the largest social network in China featuring over 846 million users.
Coffee is doubtlessly one of the most important products available in the market. On the one hand, it can boast great tonic features. On the other hand, it brings different people from different parts of the world together forming a huge global community of dedicated business professionals. The role of coffee should never be underestimated, as its importance for the global economy is the same as finances, oil or other market-defining products.
Moreover, coffee highlights some extra features such as flexibility and some other resources letting the product change in accordance with the market development and met its expectations in the long run.
“Without my friends there’s a little bit of me, but with a lot of friends there’s plenty of myself” – lines from a soviet children’s song perfectly describes the essential meaning of co-operation in any business. You can be the author of most innovative solutions, to develop breakthrough technologies, but it’s only going to be possible to bring it to a state of “finished product” by going through a complex chain of cooperation with a number of business partners.
And this is true even for applied business initiatives of the microscopic, compared to the market standards, formats. Opening a small shop selling two or three positions of coffee beverages and about the same range of pastries (i.e. we’re talking about literally micro scale of business, not even SMBs), immediately causes the owners of such an enterprise to the need to acquire the suppliers of coffee machines, cups, coffee beans or ready-to-use blends , semi-finished products for baking, microwave oven – and so on and so forth.
Vending as a sales technique is good – but only when it comes to newspapers, chocolates and chips, as well as personal care products. He who presses the button is the one who got the goods. Just pushed it – and continued their own way. Coffee beverages vending business now comes with minimum human involvement.
Coffee vending tend to vary in terms of product quality from “Lord, what is this ???” to “Well, okay.” Why is that? Because making of coffee – is a complex process with a thousand of nuances. No exceptions. The only thing that differs very much from a good “vending coffee» to a vending of a bad coffee” – is a chain Costa Coffee called Costa Express Company.
Costa Express Coffee – is an unexpected example of the coffee business in terms of a combination of indicators varying from “country of origin”. How this company was able to appear in the UK, a country of a totalitarian tea cult – it is a mystery. Nevertheless, it was there in 1971 when this brand appeared, which not only takes a confident second place in the World after Starbucks but represents today the very notion of “premium coffee vending” that tend to vary in terms of product quality, from “Lord, what is ???” to “Well, okay.” Why is that? Because making the coffee is a complex process with a thousand nuances. Virtually no exceptions. The only thing that is very distracting from the association with «vending coffee –is a vending of a bad coffee” – is a chain called in Costa Coffee.
In 2011, Costa Coffee, the second largest chain of coffee shops, decided to expand its portfolio and hit the vending area.
The movement in the new direction began with the acquisition of the Coffee Nation chain – thus Costa Express brand was born. Costa decided not to lose time and quickly started to transform the quality of vending coffee to new heights.
The main tool for the breakthrough was going to be a new approach to the implementation of the vending machine itself to make it an example of all that people usually invest in the concept of “innovation”.
Brewing high-quality coffee “from-grain-to-the-cup” via the vending machine – it’s a constant challenge. At some stage it was even a challenge to the very common sense. Getting a consistently high level of quality in the long run was not allowed by the specific historical moment’s technology.
The “Marlow Project” team
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