Around 5,000 of the new-generation Costa vending machines could be rolled out across the UK within three to five years, with workplaces, universities and hospitals among the target locations, M&C Report has learnt.
Called Marlow, the machines are currently in place at around 30 sites across the UK, with plans to grow to c250 here by the year-end, Costa Express managing director Scott Martin told M&C Report - around half of new openings are expected to be overseas.
He said the focus for the systems, which include features such as emitting smells and sounds associated with coffee shops, would not be on converting the existing 3,300-strong Costa Express estate. Instead the target would be locations “where traditionally you wouldn’t see the vending machines”, adding that the “windows of opportunity are massive”.
“We have a very successful business out there today with the existing generation-two Costa Express machine. We certainly don’t plan to change that wholesale over night; that will evolve over time.
“Where you will see Marlow in the UK is in those environments where perhaps Costa Express would never have gone for before - a workplace, a hospital, a university - where the simple economics don’t make it viable for a full-blown Costa store.
“That’s where the extended range of Marlow - the fact it has credit card and debit card, it has ‘wave and pay’, the fact it has non-coffee products in its range - will be very important.”
He added: “We want to build a business in two ways: one is with those partnerships with contract caterers, with those facilities managers, but also to go direct. There’s raft of employers out there who aren’t on the radar of the contract caterers and there’s no doubt that we want a bit of that business. Our national infrastructure allows us to do it.”
About 40 Marlow units are also in use in the United Arab Emirates, along with a “handful” in France.
Martin said this year is “the hardest to call” regarding global openings, “although we certainly have expectations around 500 machines by the end of year-one”.
“Our vision was within three to five years [to have] 10,000 machines.”
The Marlow system can emit eight different aromas such as caramel and gingerbread. Orders are placed via a 27-inch HD touch screen.
Customers are offered freshly ground Costa Mocha Italia beans and fresh milk and there’s a range of over 250 drinks.
Whitbread developed Costa Express in 2011 after its acquisition of the Coffee Nation vending business, whose units it has been converting to Costa Express.
