Technology is forever evolving to keep up with consumer demands and with COVID, there is no denying that technology has taken centre stage for the coffee industry. More and more people are working from home and many corporate canteens have been forced to close. As a result, we have seen an uptake in vending solutions.

“With safety being the priority, automated coffee solutions have helped to limit interaction and promote social distancing,” explains Stacey Moss, Managing Director. “We have seen such an increase that we have had to relook our coffee office solutions and have even added three more vending options to our existing offering.”

In the past, vending solutions have been viewed as the inferior choice when grabbing a cup of coffee but thanks to advances in technology and the continuous improvement in vending product, these opinions are slowly starting to change. “We don’t believe that technology can ever match the theatrical experience of getting a cup of coffee from your local barista but in today’s evolving environment, people are concerned for their safety so they are prepared to forego the experience as long as they get an acceptably decent cup of coffee.”

As the need for quality has increased, the industry has added to their product line up. Vending solutions used to only offer powdered milk options but recently they have added machines that can do fresh milk. This is a game changer for the industry.

Manufacturers have also increased brew chamber sizes which enable better extraction of espresso. This is also an opportunity for coffee suppliers to provide higher quality Arabica blends instead of having to create a vending blend with Robusta to get the flavour profiles balanced.

Traditionally vending was marketed at much larger corporates but over the past few months there has been an influx of smaller equipment which shows that the industry is slowly creeping in towards the small and medium office spaces, once again highlighting a need for fully automated solutions.

Not only are vending solutions convenient and safe but they are becoming the more attractive option during this time as it offers corporates a cost saving on labour. “We believe that we will continue to see further developments in the vending space and we look forward to seeing what’s next for the industry,” concludes Moss.