The Convenience of Vending

The endgame is always the same; you and your colleagues or staff need some food and drink to keep you nourished and fuelled for a day’s work.

Almost all of the issues that exist in workplaces surrounding snacking and hot beverages, are easily solved by state of the art vending machines and solutions such as those offered by the likes of Pelican Rouge to all regions of the UK; Berkshire and beyond.

Vending machines come in all shapes, sizes and designs (source: www.pelicanrouge.co.uk) and go a long way in ensuring the workforce at your place of work are more efficiently served and fuelled throughout the day and night, provided with a range of options and preferences to suit each and everyone’s taste and with around 60 billion cups of tea drank per year in the UK alone, making workplace vending more efficient has never been more important.

Existing Coffee and Hot Drinks Problems

There are a range of common issues and obstacles that arise in most workplaces though. For example, running out of milk, sugar, instant coffee and tea bags is invariably going to happen at some point.

Also, having to remake your instant drink because it wasn’t made correctly the first time round can be an annoyance. Then there is also the problem of having to find a cup or mug from which to enjoy your drink of choice.

Typically, there will be 3 methods or routes, found in almost every single workplace throughout the UK and the world for the making of hot drinks:

Instant Drinks Made with a Kettle

This is probably the most common method of making hot drinks in any workplace. It is easy to do and pretty much everyone knows how to make a semi-decent cup of tea or coffee. It is as easy as heaping in the preferred amount of instant coffee or hot chocolate, or throwing in a tea bag and sugar and then adding the correct proportions of hot water and milk to create the drink.

The problems with this though are that the ingredients are usually not carefully monitored and so things run out, from the milk to the sugar to the instant granules. There is also the problem of whose cup is whose or how many disposable cups are left.

Another issue that arises in many workplaces too is that queues and mess can build up as more and more people seek to use the same facilities for hot beverages.

On-site Cafés and Baristas

This is a luxury that many workplaces do not necessarily have and cannot necessarily afford. The benefits of this route of acquiring your hot beverage of choice are that the drink you pay for will be individually crafted for you by a barista. You will likely be able to choose from a range of drinks such as cappuccinos, lattes, flat-whites and more.

One of the biggest problems though with on-site canteen and café provisions for hot drinks and beverages though is the price. Drinks from a work canteen will likely cost at least £1.50 a time and this will add up. This means that if you buy one hot drink a day, you will be paying around £30 per month!

Another problem with this method is that the quality of the drink is almost entirely dependent on the skill and expertise of the barista and if they are not up to scratch, you may end up paying upwards of £1.50 for a substandard cup of coffee.

Vending Machines and Vending Solutions

Increasing numbers of workplaces and offices nowadays are turning to vending machines and automated solutions to their vending and coffee woes. Rather than having to wait in line for your co-worker to make their cup of coffee or tea and then clear up their mess, with the touch of a button, you get a perfectly made cup of coffee every single time.

This also removes the problem of costs. Instead of having to pay potentially more than £1.50 for a cup whose quality you can't guarantee, for significantly less, you receive well-crafted coffee that maintains its quality day in day out.

Also a benefit of vending machines in the workplace for the provision of hot drinks is that the providers of the machines are usually able to offer servicing and will take care of their upkeep. This means that machines are kept to a much more water and energy efficient as well as environmentally friendly standard and with UK law now setting out minimum standards for water efficiency (source: RJ Acoustics.), this is increasingly important for businesses.

Moreover, companies can be provided with different beans, blends and teas to change things up from month to month. Alternatively, once a popular coffee or tea is decided upon, you and your co-workers or staff will never have to worry about the skill of another barista in your canteen again.