Choosing a system to deliver hot drinks to busy staff throughout the working day can present FMs with a conundrum. Kettle? Vending machine? Or something in between?
by Andrew Clarke and Janette Gledhill
6 March 2008
Liquid refreshment
How do we keep hard working personnel alert and refreshed, throughout the working day, with a good selection of their favourite hot drinks? The choice of equipment open to FMs is wide if not confusing, ranging from simple kettles, hot water boilers and hot drinking water dispensers, to batteries of huge, hi-tech vending machines. A quick look at the features of each option, comparing convenience to provide, staff choice and the size of organisation to which they are best suited, should cast some light on this often bamboozling area of facilities provision.
1 Put the kettle on
For smaller staff numbers the kettle provides a low cost system with a familiar and comforting sense of ‘home’ about it. Office kitchenettes and breakout areas are easily equipped with cupboards and fridges in which to store the necessaries, including teas, coffees, soup, hot chocolate, sugar, milk, cups, mugs, teapots, cafetieres and teaspoons. The big benefit of kettles, and all other types of hot water dispenser, is that the choice of drinks available to staff members is as wide as they’d enjoy at home – camomile tea, Lapsang Souchong and Columbian fresh ground coffee – and they can prepare as large or small a drink as they like, in their preferred cup or mug.
On the downside, the time taken to refill and boil kettles means more staff time taken away from the desk to prepare a drink; and small capacity makes kettles inconvenient for larger staff numbers. There’s also the health and safety risk of accidental scalding to think about, and the hygiene issues associated with spillages and cleaning cups and utensils.
For small staff numbers kettles are cosy, but perhaps not as convenient as you may at first think.
2 Boiling point
Wall-mounted or table-top hot water boilers afford staff the same unlimited choice of drinks, cups and mugs as do kettles. Boilers also have the significant added advantage of instant hot water dispensing so making them more suitable for higher staff numbers. FMs must take care of the same system maintenance issues as are associated with kettles, though, and the question of who’ll restock supplies and pay for drinks, clean and sanitise preparation surfaces and fridges must all still be agreed and clearly communicated.
3 Push of a button
Where daily usage is moderate, there are a number of advantages in opting for a mains-fed drinking water dispenser with an extra ‘hot’ button, to make hot drinks. While boilers and kettles are normally restricted to kitchen areas, drinking water dispensers can be positioned throughout the office environment, allowing hot water to be accessed in a range of other, convenient locations.
As well as piping hot water for teas and coffees, mains-fed drinking water dispensers will also provide the organisation’s chilled drinking water supply, including still and sparkling with some models. It may be more economical to buy one machine for both cold and hot water dispensing, rather than paying for a water cooler plus a boiler or kettle.
4 Ready to vend
Hot drinks vending provide convenience – a freshly prepared drink at the touch of a button and with little or no need for teaspoons or sugar bowls. With tastes growing ever more sophisticated, the hot drinks vending industry has responded with diversification in product development – table-top ‘bean to cup’ machines, for espresso or cappuccino to floor standing instant machines. Vending machines deliver 8 million cups of coffee and 2 million cups of tea every 24 hours.
For really large staff numbers, a suite of vending machines is arguably the best choice. One benefit of vending is that every drink is delivered to the same standard and into a hygienic, single-use cup, in sizes now ranging from the traditional 7 oz up to a coffee-shop style 12 oz cup.
A range of maintenance options is available, to keep machines regularly stocked, emptied of cash, cleaned and in good working order - from DIY, to supplier service agreements and even dedicated maintenance teams based on site, for very large premises. Payment systems are also a major part of the vending decision. Payment can be made in the traditional way by coin, or by a cashless system such as tokens or cards.
Alternatively, the system can be put on free vend, so that drinks are paid for by the organisation via their operating agreement, rather than by individual staff members at the point of dispensing.
Andrew Clarke is UK distribution manager with PHS Waterlogic and Janette Gledhill is director of the Automatic Vending Association
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