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SandenVendo Office Coffee equipment


Vendo Mike

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SandenVendo America (Vendo) is strongly considering entry into OCS with a countertop unit. Our sister company in Italy (SVE) already manufactures a very nice machine that we've shown at a couple of shows in the last couple of years (NAMA and NACS) with pretty good reviews.  The models you see below are set up for coins (Euros).  Should we begin to manufacture at our plant in Dallas for US sales, it would be reconfigured for domestic coinage and card reader for use as a vending unit or micro-market setting. 

I would very much like to hear the thoughts of the operators here regarding the equipment.  Please visit https://www.vendoco.com/copy-of-vending-equipment for more info and fire away with questions, comments, critiques at your earliest convenience.  

To be clear, I'm looking for honest feedback on this equipment. Feel free to point out features, benefits, pain-points, that may be overlooked here.  Your opinion is appreciated.

  

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Two words:

Parts and Support.

Can I get parts for it reasonably priced? Quickly? (ie not shipped from Italy?) 

Is this similar enough to other brands of equipment that a competent tech should be able to work on this with minimal learning curve? If not, is there training for operators and/or their techs to be able to fix these? Are they reasonably easy to work on?

Is it easy to clean and do regular servicing on?

Also, I do not know how you are able to have a 1-3200w heater run on 110v at 16A.

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All great questions. 

Parts and support - Until we move manufacturing to Dallas, we would most likely bring in an inventory of units and parts to sale/support domestically.  That should keep shipping costs / time to a minimum.  Especially with support of our distributor network.  A market has to be established to determine what model / how many to keep on hand.

Is this similar enough to other brands of equipment that a competent tech should be able to work on this with minimal learning curve? If not, is there training for operators and/or their techs to be able to fix these? Are they reasonably easy to work on?   Of the few other countertop style machines I've had my hands in, these are comparable as far as ease of maintenance/service.  There is an auto cleaning function but disassembly is pretty easy.  Everything is removeable and washable.  It's not rocket surgery but will take a little getting used to.  With any Vendo equipment, you should be able to contact your territory rep and schedule training or ask questions as they arise. 

Also, I do not know how you are able to have a 1-3200w heater run on 110v at 16A?  You're obviously a stickler for math :)     There is obviously an oversight somewhere along the way between engineering and marketing.  I have just posed that question to them.  The original (European) model is 220 VAC but a 120 VAC model has been a topic of discussion.  I'm waiting to hear if the heater was changed or if the unit is actually still 220 VAC.

 

 

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The manuals and parts lists will need to be in English.  The English we use in the US, not what the Italians think we use.  Just review the Brio manuals and you'll see that yours need to be the opposite.  Market it as a US machine, not as an import from anywhere.  Those that have imported coffee machines (looking at you, Vendors Exchange and Betson) have ignored the fact that this is a US market run by US operators.  The machines need to be US machines.  As orsd said, the parts and tech support must be spot on and not closed at 5pm eastern time.  And don't call the brewer a "doser".

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8 minutes ago, AZVendor said:

The manuals and parts lists will need to be in English.  The English we use in the US, not what the Italians think we use.  Just review the Brio manuals and you'll see that yours need to be the opposite.  Market it as a US machine, not as an import from anywhere.  Those that have imported coffee machines (looking at you, Vendors Exchange and Betson) have ignored the fact that this is a US market run by US operators.  The machines need to be US machines.  As orsd said, the parts and tech support must be spot on and not closed at 5pm eastern time.  And don't call the brewer a "doser".

I appreciate all of this and will forward to the office.  Let me know if you see "doser" on any of our literature.  

"Those that have imported coffee machines (looking at you, Vendors Exchange and Betson) have ignored the fact that this is a US market run by US operators."  Can you expand on this statement a little?  Is this referring to unclear manuals?  What were the primary issues with the units that VE and Betson distributed?  Long supply line?

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Mike, have you not looked at the brochures yet? CaffeUno Coffee Server should be called Single Cup Coffee Brewer or Coffee Vendor.  Is it CaffeUno or Caffè Uno, both are used? Temperature Management should be followed with 'System'. We don't reference thermal mass in the US. What is TSE and TSC? Interface Touch should be reversed. "10 Direct Push Button" should be plural. Water Fitting Connection should be 1/4" and list PSI, not Bar or Mpa. Energy Consumption should be in W or KW. I see no manuals and that is where you'll have bigger issues.

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7 hours ago, Vendo Mike said:

 

I appreciate all of this and will forward to the office.  Let me know if you see "doser" on any of our literature.  

"Those that have imported coffee machines (looking at you, Vendors Exchange and Betson) have ignored the fact that this is a US market run by US operators."  Can you expand on this statement a little?  Is this referring to unclear manuals?  What were the primary issues with the units that VE and Betson distributed?  Long supply line?

I forgot to add that the manuals that the Brio's came with were in a mix of English and Italian with horrible grammar and very hard to decipher at times.  Just google the manuals and you'll see what I mean.  While VE finally came to the plate with tons of parts, they still didn't have good techs devoted to the machine as they were chintzy on the labor, and calling Italy was out of the question.  Luckily, as I worked on them I got a very good understanding of how they worked and how to program them.  I don't recall what models Betson brought in but they didn't have them very long and it's because the Brio burned too many bridges with vendors, I'm sure.  Even VE eventually dropped the Brio after they created a VE International division in Florida that was the importer for this stuff.  I dont' remember all the details but they were importing from Europe and South America, or importing from Europe and selling to South America - I can't remember. 

Since then there have been Colibri, Necta and tons of others that diluted the market so much that I would bet no one made any money importing machines.  In this sub-forum you'll find tons of people deciding to buy some imported coffee machine and then trying to find someone to help them with it.  There's a guy still trying to sell his in the classifieds.  It's just a black hole for most.  The only domestic single cup brewer that I have been aware of was the National Cafe 7.  Try to find those now.  It's a tough market to say the least.

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Sounds like you may still be suffering some PTSD from those days.  Or you made lemonade out of lemons by getting familiar with the equipment and made some money on support.  I came from vending repair with some sprinklings of coffee but I know enough to know that I don't know enough about coffee as an industry. I've had my hands in Nat'l and AP coffee vendors but I'm not nearly as versed in those as drink/snack/food machines.  I remember programming "throw times" being something that required advanced trigonometry.  That's why I put the feelers out.  I'm trying to learn more so I can speak intelligently to issues and concerns as well as what customers will be looking for in the equipment.   I am in total agreement about the manuals availability and clarity.  

I will pass your comments and concerns on to marketing and engineering so they can adjust the spec sheet and start work on the manuals.  I will keep an eye on this post for more feedback from anyone else interested and continue to compile feedback. 

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11 hours ago, Vendo Mike said:

Sounds like you may still be suffering some PTSD from those days.  Or you made lemonade out of lemons by getting familiar with the equipment and made some money on support.  I came from vending repair with some sprinklings of coffee but I know enough to know that I don't know enough about coffee as an industry. I've had my hands in Nat'l and AP coffee vendors but I'm not nearly as versed in those as drink/snack/food machines.  I remember programming "throw times" being something that required advanced trigonometry.  That's why I put the feelers out.  I'm trying to learn more so I can speak intelligently to issues and concerns as well as what customers will be looking for in the equipment.   I am in total agreement about the manuals availability and clarity.  

I will pass your comments and concerns on to marketing and engineering so they can adjust the spec sheet and start work on the manuals.  I will keep an eye on this post for more feedback from anyone else interested and continue to compile feedback. 

What I like about full size coffee machines is that they can make a LOT of drinks.  My lone machine does about $45/week on average and I am pretty content with it since it was something I really wanted to learn from.  The downside is that it requires regular cleaning/maintenance, it has a full-size footprint, and they are very expensive!!!

What I like about OCS is that it's brainless, easy money as there's practically no maintenance.  Of course, the downside is that people are moving away from coffee pots and going to keurigs because there are SO many more options than a plain brewed pot of coffee.  Plus, I think covid has started to put the nail in the coffin at a lot of locations as they see brewers as "old".  

I really do think that it is ideal to have that middle-of-the-road option as long as the price point is right.  There's this no-man's land where locations are just way too small for coffee machines but they want a freshly brewed cup of coffee.  I have thought about this before and looked into my options but, as many have mentioned, the existing options are just garbage for the US market.  My tech told me that the national single cup machine was nice and worked similarly to a national coffee machine (at least he said he could figure it out much easier than the other brands).

If we can get a single-serve coffee machine, ESPECIALLY if we can accept some form of payment other than just coins, and the price is reasonable (under $2k maybe?), it may be a deal maker.  If I understood your literature correctly, it has a coffee canister and 2 other cannisters (toppings? I don't know coffee well enough).  I can see where people would find it interesting to get a FRESHLY brewed cup of coffee, and they can add the amount of sugar/creamer they want and we can simply bill them for delivered cannisters and make our money off of the brewed cups.  I think that's the perfect middle-of-the-road option where we can make a "premium" cup of coffee relatively quickly and make a good profit.  It seems like the *potential* option (not guaranteed unfortunately) to get us into those office locations where they feel they have to have a coffee machine.

Full disclosure -- I have no personal experience with micro markets.  I am speaking strictly from the perspective of a regular vending machine operator only.  I know that coffee seems to be an expanding industry but it's just hard for us vendors to compete with keurig machines.  I don't mind keurigs because chances are low that I will lose an account because my competitor offered a coffee machine, but it's hard to make money when the customer has keurig machines.  I personally would like an option where I can make a "premium" cup of coffee with very little maintenance and without paying way too much money.  A used bunn is something like $75?  A brand new full-size coffee is what... $7,000? I don't even know!!  I would just really like something affordable that could be a good selling point because I get a LOT of requests for coffee machines from locations that do decent in sales ($100/week+) but I just can't justify the costs or hassle of a full-size coffee machine and literally no one is willing to do the work to brew a pot of coffee at a lot of these locations.  That's my opinion.

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I think single cup machines have always been overpriced. Sub $2000 would be acceptable but closer to $1500 or less is what I would truly value one at. They must return an investment in 2 yrs or less. These machines look very small and they do not dispense cups as the Brio and Cafe 7 did (the one your tech referred to, Chris. Yes they shared parts with the full size National machines). These machines are so small that 3 flavors is about all that would fit in them which would make 5-6 different drinks. 

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Unfortunately, I lack the experience for any solid feedback.  I can only speak for the customers' requests.  But requests do not translate into demand necessarily.  I will happily loan a customer a pour over even if they don't buy from me, but a full size coffee is usually a deal breaker in small locations.  My thoughts may be completely irrelevant in an account that justifies having a micro market.

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  • 4 months later...

Sorry for bringing up an old thread.. was looking. At a coffee machine and ran across this..

Vendo mike..Not sure the status of this but you may want to go talk to Continental vending in Anaheim.... when Bill Walsh was around her ran a ton of coffee machines and cup drink machines as well(in 2006 lol) anyway he reengineered the machines to be more reliable and easier to repair.. something about  going from 3 valves down to one.. he showed me on day and it made sense, service calls they just replaced all the valves and since there were fewer it was cost effective.  
 

Not sure why Nestle machines aren’t all over the place... I have a customer in the Caribbean that runs 500 or so... similar to your machine.. and in India Nestle is huge as well... 

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  • 2 months later...

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