Ian Reynolds-Young
London based vending and refreshment solutions company Cafepoint LLP has announced the award of ‘yet another major, £1m + contract’. (PV reported the company’s success at Tower Hamlets – it’s here). The company will supply Ipswich Borough Council with refreshment and snack vending machines at eight buildings in and around Ipswich.
Intense competition…
The contract was won in the face of intense competition during a competitive tendering process.
Cafepoint LLP have recently introduced Wi-Fi technology monitoring, together with new generation N&W and Westomatic machines, across all sites. Most of the machines have full touch-screen technology. Visual drinks menus and customisable product icons make the machines fully interactive. The contract involves the installation of around 35 brand-new machines.
The snack and cold drink machines are N&W’s ‘Samba Top Bottle and Can’ and ‘Samba Touch’. Both come complete with 7″ touch screens, a ‘basket’ facility to enable multi-buy discounts, and easily accessible nutritional information.
All the machines are fitted with up-to-date payment technology, including a contactless device enabling customers to pay for their products by Credit and Debit Card or Smart Mobile pay options (including Apple Pay & Samsung Pay). The machines have remote management to carry out preemptive maintenance to improve machine up-time. They can also provide real-time machine alerts and product sales, display stock levels and identify sales hot-spots, trends and promotional variance.
The right machines
“We’re delighted once again to be awarded yet another large vending contract with a Borough Council. These are important contracts to win, because we’re providing a vending and refreshment solution to both council employees and the general public” Gary Lewis, Cafepoint LLP, Director, told PV. ‘This time, we’ve placed many machines in large sports and leisure centres, as well as providing services to council employees. Again, we’ve spent a lot of time painstakingly selecting and identifying the right machines with up to date innovation, ensuring customers purchase first class products and coffee shop quality beverages in 12oz paper cups.”
So, machines aside, what’s the secret of Cafepoint LLP’s spate of recent successes? ‘It’s all about our fanatical obsession with quality’, Gary said. ‘We’re constantly reviewing and measuring market trends to make sure our packages provide the right solutions for every single individual customer. All our customers have their own individual requirements, so we set out to present a bespoke turn-key solution that’s designed specifically for them.
‘Customers seem to be looking for suppliers with a more flexible approach to doing business’, Gary added. ‘They appear to be moving away from the traditional coffee vending companies, because they still adopt old style business models based on a vended cup of coffee with generic beans and machines.’
It’s food for thought, isn’t it?
