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Getting Into Coffee - Need Recommendations


ThankYouComeAgain

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Hi, I've thought about getting into coffee as it is supposedly more lucrative.

Can someone recommend a few machines to take a look at buying? In my area, Flavia machines are seemingly the best machines, but they are distributed by people who are already in the coffee business, are large companies, and I have business relationships with them to where they may use me for vending. If they find out I'm getting into coffee they could stop using me. So my thinking is that I need to be able to get a Keurig machine that is of good quality (pump doesn't break after 4 months). I want to bring these into accounts where I undercut the pricing of the "big guys", the same ones who distribute Flavia machines.

I'm still learning what to charge for everything, but I must say, I was able to coyly snagged a price list from one of these larger vendors that use Flavia/Keurig, and are approved distributors of Flavia.

I'd appreciate any and all help.

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Hi, I've thought about getting into coffee as it is supposedly more lucrative.

Can someone recommend a few machines to take a look at buying? In my area, Flavia machines are seemingly the best machines, but they are distributed by people who are already in the coffee business, are large companies, and I have business relationships with them to where they may use me for vending. If they find out I'm getting into coffee they could stop using me. So my thinking is that I need to be able to get a Keurig machine that is of good quality (pump doesn't break after 4 months). I want to bring these into accounts where I undercut the pricing of the "big guys", the same ones who distribute Flavia machines.

I'm still learning what to charge for everything, but I must say, I was able to coyly snagged a price list from one of these larger vendors that use Flavia/Keurig, and are approved distributors of Flavia.

I'd appreciate any and all help.

Not sure what you mean by more lucrative. The margins on coffee and coffee products are smaller than vending margins. All of these companies only sell the commercial machines and product through an approved vendor network. You need to be a fairly large company to get approved from what I have found. The way that you make your profit on these coffees are different. The approved companies will pay ~.42 - .45 a unit, sell it for .50 to the customer. Now they only made .05-.08 a unit but they get another .08-.11 a unit back from the company in the form of a rebate. They do this so that they can control the distributor channels and prevent people like you from undercutting their vendors :)

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I want to give it a whirl. I appreciate the info. I've read everything on this website about Keurig, I'm about to do the same when searching under Flavia. I just want to add coffee to the vending portion and see if I can make some money.

Does anyone have a model number they recommend as it pertains to Bunn pour over machines, as well as Flavia's and Keurig's single serve mack daddy machines?

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I want to give it a whirl. I appreciate the info. I've read everything on this website about Keurig, I'm about to do the same when searching under Flavia. I just want to add coffee to the vending portion and see if I can make some money.

Does anyone have a model number they recommend as it pertains to Bunn pour over machines, as well as Flavia's and Keurig's single serve mack daddy machines?

Do you mean the k-cup keurig vending machines and then another machine to brew the coffee or actual hot coffee coming out of one machine from start to finish as I think those questions would definitely influence what you want to do...

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Several of my California companies are switching their business plans from full line vending to coffee and water. It is becoming harder for these companies to make their margins with vending. I know Masters Service in Hesperia is going to sell off their vending routes as soon as all of their equipment in their warehouse is placed. Too many vendors chasing the same accounts, pushing high commissions and the same products. The price of gas alone has caused a big problem for servicing accounts.

North County Vending was just purchased by Canteen. So in two months Rainbow Vending (San Diego) and now North County Vending (San Diego and Riverside CA). These are large companies.

So coffee and water could be a good way to go.

Poplady

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I can't help you with the Keurig or Flavia, as I said the companies have put stops in place to prevent small companies from competing with their authorized distributors. I always thought I would like to try one of these:

http://www.newcocoffee.com/pdf/FreshCup.pdf

I have tried the coffee at a trade show and it is good. The pods cost less then half of a K-cup. Newco is also a well respected brand in the industry.

As far as bunn model numbers, I would use any of the commercial brewers that did what you need (Auto, pourover, fits under the counter etc). You really can't go wrong with a brewer as long as it fits your needs and you stick with Bunn or Newco.

JD

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Thanks ladies and gents. I'm about to share a non secret here - the Flavia and Keurig machines can be bought from Ebay, and so can the packets for the machines. However, when looking at the prices for the coffee, I see that you can only make about .10 cents or so profit per packet of coffee sold. For example, Royal Cup, a major distributor and user of Flavia/Keurig, sell their K-cups to their customers at .57 cents, and their Alterra coffee packets to their customers at .44 cents, I believe (44 dollars a case, and I believe there are 100 packs in a case). If they are selling at .44 cents a case, I'd be curious to know what they can sell it to me as.

Edit: would this ever cut it? The office has 90 white collar workers.

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=315152&CategoryID=7554&LinkType=#fn=BRAND%3DKeurig%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D52

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Thanks ladies and gents. I'm about to share a non secret here - the Flavia and Keurig machines can be bought from Ebay, and so can the packets for the machines. However, when looking at the prices for the coffee, I see that you can only make about .10 cents or so profit per packet of coffee sold. For example, Royal Cup, a major distributor and user of Flavia/Keurig, sell their K-cups to their customers at .57 cents, and their Alterra coffee packets to their customers at .44 cents, I believe (44 dollars a case, and I believe there are 100 packs in a case). If they are selling at .44 cents a case, I'd be curious to know what they can sell it to me as.

Edit: would this ever cut it? The office has 90 white collar workers.

http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=315152&CategoryID=7554&LinkType=#fn=BRAND%3DKeurig%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D52

i pitch coffee to hotels only

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