I am currently in pharmaceutical sales and looking to start a business I can call my own. I am attracted to the office coffee service industry, and have done some basic research (on Automatic Merchandiser and Vending Times online). However, I have yet to find very basic "how to" guide. Such as: how do office coffee services make their money? Do they purchase the equipment themselves, or sell it to the offices? How would one ensure that accounts purchase their supplies from you if they are using your equipment?
Are there any resources on starting an office coffee service company? I'm excited to start my learning, but I don't know where to turn!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Where to start?
Started by vendievend, Feb 13 2008 05:09 PM
5 replies to this topic
#1
vendievend
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Posted 13 February 2008 - 05:09 PM
#2
Emcar Vending Machines
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Posted 25 May 2008 - 04:55 PM
It depends on exactly what kind of service you are thinking of providing.
When I used to supply pour over machines I used to give them the machine on free loan and they agreed to buy a set amount of coffee per month. The coffee was delivered and invoiced every month. Sometimes a good account would use more than the set amount. How much coffee you would need to tie them into would depend on the cost of the equipment provided and the margin you make on the coffee sales, and see what the ROI works out at. I used to have a minimum two year agreement and my equipment paid for within the first year.
If you are thinking of going into vending, there are a couple of options.
One is to put a coin operated machine in and provide the full service, cleandown, restock and maintenance, and keep the takings.
The other one, which works well for me in the UK, is to rent a machine to the customer for them to cleandown and restock themselves. It's up to you whether or not you tie the customer to buying ingredient from you, but if you get your rental figures right and make money on that, then any profit on ingredient sales is jam on the bread.
There may be other ways. I've given you some options to consider, but as I don't know the US market for machines they may not be much use to you.
When I used to supply pour over machines I used to give them the machine on free loan and they agreed to buy a set amount of coffee per month. The coffee was delivered and invoiced every month. Sometimes a good account would use more than the set amount. How much coffee you would need to tie them into would depend on the cost of the equipment provided and the margin you make on the coffee sales, and see what the ROI works out at. I used to have a minimum two year agreement and my equipment paid for within the first year.
If you are thinking of going into vending, there are a couple of options.
One is to put a coin operated machine in and provide the full service, cleandown, restock and maintenance, and keep the takings.
The other one, which works well for me in the UK, is to rent a machine to the customer for them to cleandown and restock themselves. It's up to you whether or not you tie the customer to buying ingredient from you, but if you get your rental figures right and make money on that, then any profit on ingredient sales is jam on the bread.
There may be other ways. I've given you some options to consider, but as I don't know the US market for machines they may not be much use to you.
#3
Tradesmen1
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Posted 06 May 2009 - 07:47 PM
Lease them the machine, sell them the product. Sounds like a good plan
#4
limetree
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Posted 24 November 2009 - 11:08 AM
I am currently in pharmaceutical sales and looking to start a business I can call my own. I am attracted to the office coffee service industry, and have done some basic research (on Automatic Merchandiser and Vending Times online). However, I have yet to find very basic "how to" guide. Such as: how do office coffee services make their money? Do they purchase the equipment themselves, or sell it to the offices? How would one ensure that accounts purchase their supplies from you if they are using your equipment?
Are there any resources on starting an office coffee service company? I'm excited to start my learning, but I don't know where to turn!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Coffeesolutions.co.za try this website it has a lot of options, it certainly helped my employees to move faster
#6
dartcol
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Posted 08 October 2014 - 07:30 AM
One is to put a coin operated machine in and provide the full service, cleandown, restock and maintenance, and keep the takings.
I prefer the same. It allows more flexible tactics moving to the more perspective account when you want.
