The Ultimate 'Express' Coffee Experience

Tiger Coffee, distributors of the Swiss made Thermoplan automated coffee machines favoured by large scale retail and hospitality, now offer a retail machine for coffee lovers in a rush. Designed to extend revenue streams, the machine is being trialled in a big box retailer linked to its full-service Barista café partner.

For so many of us coffee has become as much part of the daily routine as getting dressed in the morning. We all have our favourite cafes and form on-going friendships with their friendly barista staff.

But all too often you just can’t spare the time for a full-service barista coffee, or you’re on the road earlier than their opening hours. On those days, you might have to weigh up other options: find a less busy café? Question why no-one else is there? Explain your preferred brew and hope it tastes okay? Invariably you might end up disappointed. Tiger Coffee has a solution.

Under trial currently in the trade section of a construction supply retailer is a standalone, barista style coffee vending machine. A coffee vending machine? That might not sound very ‘barista style’, but once you’ve sampled the coffee it produces, you’ll agree, it absolutely is.

“We’re currently being trialled by a brand who has coffee in their name, so if our coffees were sub-standard, it just wouldn’t work,” says Tiger Coffee Managing Director, Sheona Kearney. “But the technology in the machine ensures consistently amazing coffee cup after cup. These machines are gaining popularity all across coffee-loving Europe at busy places like Heathrow Airport.”

For the café partner of the retail site, the coffee machine is attracting new business, even outside of their operating hours.

“Tradies start their day here very early. The café partner has yet to open but builders, plumbers, electricians can all self-serve a piping hot coffee while they are getting their building supplies,” explains Sheona. “Even in the hours the café is open, these customers are busy and don’t always have time or the inclination to order from a full-service café. But with this solution, the café has an express offering. It’s slightly cheaper than the full barista service as it’s not tied to that full experience. But for the tradies, it’s offering an experience that is tailored to their daily routine.”

The café can use its signature beans, brands the machine and the machine can even integrate with the café’s loyalty programme. The end user experience is superb as well, with a vibrant display and quick, intuitive kiosk controls making it simple to order and pay.

What’s more, the Thermoplan machine is every bit as well-crafted as any high-end manual espresso machine. The modular chassis and components are handmade and can be switched out for ease of servicing so the machine’s productivity (or the customer’s coffee experience and connection with the brand) remains uninhibited.

Now with the ThermoplanConnect telemetry system, Tiger Coffee can also update the branded messaging displayed on the screen remotely. The café customer is able to monitor all relevant consumable usage statistics and information on the fully automatic coffee machine via the cloud.

With robust tempered glass touchscreens and user-friendly software, Tiger Coffee’s machines not only add a high-quality extension to a café’s existing customer coffee offering, they also deliver a seamless and rewarding user experience even the most time-poor customers will keep coming back for.