Coffee and baked goods – a match made in heaven

If you like German bakeries and admire German engineering you’ll enjoy this video story about Tim Eichholz and his family bakery in Erfurt in the central German state of Thuringia. The BaristaONE, automatic portafilter machine Tim is using features proprietary technology, allowing operators to serve hot and cold milk foam and espresso as if from a traditional, espresso-style machine: “the customer can see we’re preparing the coffee ourselves and not just pressing a button.”

CUP&CINO serves up barista-quality coffee every time

CUP&CINO, the international coffee company headquartered in Hövelhof, East Westphalia, has a winning proposition – providing barista-quality coffee at the push of a button.

CUP&CINO’s category expertise, developed over the last 26 years, has seen the business become one of the largest providers of coffee solutions for petrol stations in Germany, alongside an established presence in the hotel, restaurant and catering industries and at train stations in partnership with Deutsche Bahn’s premium lounge concept .

What’s more, two of the country’s largest petrol chains command the highest price point  in their sector for coffee in Germany using CUP&CINO’s concept. The company has developed the BaristaONE, the first automatic portafilter machine that features the company’s proprietary, patented technology, which allows operators to serve hot and cold milk foam and espresso as if from a traditional, espresso-style machine.

Frank Epping, CUP&CINO’s founder and CEO, claims any business that adopts his company’s solutions will increase their revenue within two months.

Supplying 4,000 of Germany’s 15,000 petrol station outlets, Epping is a good judge and he reveals that retailers who switch to CUP&CINO’s BaristaOne machines can increase their turnover by up to 30-40%. In terms of individual cups that can mean an increase from 4,000-5,000 servings per month to 11,000-12,000 servings.

Consistency is assured too. Epping states: “Our solutions provide a perfect quality in every location. The machine is not able to make a bad coffee.”

What’s more, the quality of the coffee offer creates a halo effect in-store. Bakeries, another key market for the brand, benefit from increased sales of bakery products due to the higher perceived quality of the drinks, Epping reports.

“Our core competency is to develop a holistic coffee solution for chain accounts, which will yield better business results,” Epping continues. “Product quality and customer experience are paramount. We provide a barista experience with quality coffee and milk foam that’s on a par with that dispensed by a traditional, espresso-style coffee machine. Plus, we have significant experience in PoS and marketing to help our customers increase their revenues further.”

Now CUP&CINO is looking to replicate its success in Germany and grow in new international markets.
Two years ago it recruited international business consultant, Sven Keysers, to assist in that process. The Berlin-based specialist has a background in management consultancy and helping start-up companies thrive.

At CUP&CINO he’s working alongside a true sector expert. While Epping founded the business in 1995, he has 40 years’ experience in the sector having previously worked at his parents’ wholesale company distributing wines and spirts and, of course, coffee.

Epping’s retail insight proved invaluable when he set up CUP&CINO. He created a business model that guaranteed every cup of CUP&CINO that was served was 100% CUP&CINO and not an inferior, lower quality brand.

“Frank turned around the way invoicing works,” explains Keysers. “CUP&CINO customers – whether they lease or buy a machine – pay for what comes out of the machine. It’s a cloud-based concept – there are metres in the machines which count how many cups of coffee are being sold and those are the ones that are paid for and the coffee beans are then sent via express delivery to the customer free of charge. It ensures only high quality coffee is being used.”

The model also provides a strong statistical capability, which can inform management decisions taken by the chain accounts.

Cup&Cino’s story isn’t just about coffee though. In order to support customers and help to build their turnover further, the business has introduced a premium range of organic teas, which is also available in teabags to cater for the convenience and catering industries. There’s a speciality hot chocolate product called Latte Pralino too, which was the first in the market to use solid chocolate.

And in 2017 the company debuted its latest rendition of the portafilter machine – the first coffee machine with the capability to dispense both hot and cold textured milk on demand, expanding the assortment choice for the customer even further.

The company has an eye on future trends too in order to appeal to younger consumers who are looking for plant-based products, cold drinks and healthy additions to beverages Epping reports.

The ability to offer new drinks and specialties is key in improving customer margins, Epping adds.

But, despite the evolution in both products and the coffee machine technology, CUP&CINO has held true to its principles of providing barista-like quality coffee but with the ultimate simplicity and ease using touchscreen technology.

According to Epping, petrol station staff  can get completely to grips with the machine in just five minutes; while Keysers opines the company has solved the problem of finding and hiring trained baristas since those skills have been put into the machine. That includes the ability to offer latte art.

Epping claims it’s a target of CUP&CINO that in future every customer is able to offer latte art. “But the milk needs to be great and ready to use,” he adds.

The service versus self-serve aspect of CUP&CINO’s approach is critical too. Again, it’s a nod to that barista experience instead of a staff-less store environment.

“Our focus is that someone is there preparing the coffee, winning a great customer reaction and building relationships, which increases turnover by up-selling,” Epping says.

CUP&CINO’s retail insight is another great strength and it’s been developed through operating its own coffee shops since the 1990s, in Germany and other markets.

“This gives Frank and the company knowledge of the operator,” Keysers states. The in-house expertise has also enabled the business to minimise the concept of a coffee shop and go into the convenience and retail space, he adds.

Technical back up and support is another key selling feature at CUP&CINO.

The company provides a comprehensive technical service package including an emergency help line. All parts and labour are included too and at no extra cost.

And, because the company’s coffee machines are modular in design with just five key elements (two for coffee, one for water, one for steam and the computer system) this eliminates the need for on-site repairs. A light engineer service can quickly replace modules on-site, which minimizes downtime and service costs.

In addition, CUP&CINO provides a remote advisory telephone service and can provide retailers with spare modules in advance, which they can swap themselves, should a problem arise. The result means literally no downtime and the majority of issues can be fixed remotely.

As well as helping chain accounts increase their revenue, CUP&CINO and its partners are giving back to society through the CUP&CINO Foundation, which raises money for good causes. Every customer who supports the CUP&CINO Foundation donates 2 cents for every serving of coffee. A partner business serving 1,000 cups of coffee a month would be donating €20 per month or €240 per year, for example, and would be provided with free promotional material so that their customers and store teams know they are doing a good deed with every cup of coffee served.

The Foundation’s first project has helped to provide safe access to clean water for children in Ethiopia, a key coffee producing country.

With market representation already in Germany and Austria CUP&CINO has recently created an international division to seek out new partners and roasters. It already has a partnership with Bewley’s of Ireland, who use CUP&CINO machines and is aiming to emulate that relationship with other local or national heroes, Keysers reports.

The company is targeting all markets in Europe plus Japan, China, Australia, Korea and Russia – among others.

The beauty of the CUP&CINO concept is the coffee shop experience along with the modular engineering, which means the coffee machines and solutions are suitable for any retail channel and any marketplace.

Operators looking to offer their customers a quality coffee product and a barista-style experience should now know where to look.