An N&W Wittenborg 9100, supplied by SV 24/7 Vending, is at the centre of a political spat in Stirling. It involves opposing councillors who can’t seem to agree upon which side sanctioned its purchase. The up-shot has been some brilliant free publicity for one of N&W’s star machines in the popular Scottish newspaper, The Daily Record.
Top journalist Kaiya Marjoribanks reported it this way: ‘Tory councillors this week accused the new SNP/Labour administration of sanctioning the purchase of the machine – which sits in the members’ lounge and boasts a touch screen and LED lights to show users where to put the cups.’
‘Wake up and smell the coffee, instead of wasting money’, Rush Davidson’s foot soldiers insisted. Their position is that ‘the costs of such machines were ruled out during the previous administration as being too expensive at a time when council finances were under pressure.’
Conservative group leader Councillor Neil Benny is seething: ‘The first act of this administration is to buy themselves an expensive new coffee machine’, he stormed. ‘This spits in the face of the people of Stirling who are paying for it. The Labour group wanted to buy one while I was still finance convenor and were told ‘no’. Clearly, their new SNP paymasters have as cavalier an attitude towards taxpayers’ money as Labour.’
Oops. The good news for N&W, the manufacturers of the contentious Wittenborg 9100, is that Ms Marjoribanks was thorough in her background research, describing at length the machine’s considerable capabilities.
She wrote: ‘According to the Wittenborg 9100’s online brochure, it features: “Coffee exactly to your taste; Espresso, cappuccino, caffé latte or a creamy hot chocolate – made just they way you like, simply by the touch of your finger. The touch screen allows you to make changes to the drink strength and ingredient amount to tailor the drink to your specific requirements. Added features can include WiFi and Bluetooth enabled on-screen information, online connectivity and even the weather forecast.’
Meanwhile Dave Ward, N&W MD has had a great idea. ‘I think they should all sit down and discuss it over a great cup of coffee’, he said.
We had a chat with Ms Marjoribanks too, hoping to discover the ‘Deep Throat who’d leaked the story. ‘It was one of my sources’, was all she would say…
*PV would like to thank The Daily Record and especially Kaiya Marjoribanks for allowing us to run this story.
