Consumers Want More From Food And Beverage Franchises

In a day and age where tech reigns supreme, food and beverage concepts can no longer simply offer the best tasting burger, rice bowl, or burrito to attract customers. Increasingly, customers expect far more. From the ability to get food and drinks where they work and live to demanding fresh and transparent sourcing, America’s evolving eating habits are forcing F&B businesses to innovate.

A new report from Label Insight and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) revealed that shoppers are increasingly demanding transparency and a closer connection to their food — so much so that 75% say they'll switch to a brand that provides more in-depth product information beyond what's provided on the physical label.

Nigell Lee CEO of Xpresso Delight, a NYC Based Coffee Service company, understands that modern Food and Beverage companies need to think more like logistics companies if they are going to give customers what they want at scale.

“We have succeeded in bringing the third wave of coffee to the workplace by providing gourmet coffee to offices that has only been possible through a transparent and sophisticated supply chain,” explained Nigell.

Xpresso Delight is the world's largest coffee service franchise with over 200 franchises in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States and provides coffee service to over 1000 offices every day.

Nigell continued, “We found that the only way to set yourself apart from other coffee companies is through providing the freshest possible experience directly where customers are… in the office.”

To meet consumer demands for quality and transparency, Xpresso Delight built out a sophisticated supply chain that sources beans from Brazil, Papua New Guinea, and Columbia, roasts it in the United States, and ships directly to offices within a week of roasting. They supply offices with top-of-the-line automated espresso machines that grind their bean blend and froth milk at the push of a button, dubbed “automated cafes,” and provide a weekly cleaning service to ensure quality. All for a simple per-cup-rate to offices, making it a seamless and straightforward process for offices to upgrade their coffee.

Xpresso Delight is capitalizing on the dynamic market shift toward companies providing better amenities for employees and green initiatives — it’s also benefiting from an emerging trend in American coffee consumption. Millennials, the generation that is in the early stages of taking over the majority of the workforce, are driving the move away from typical drip coffee toward espresso-based drinks. Next time you drive down Main Street in your town, take note of the hip espresso shops popping up, and you’ll get an idea of what’s now evolving in office coffee culture.

Xpresso Delight has been expanding throughout the United States by partnering with sophisticated multi-unit franchisees to bring their coffee service offering to the top 50 cities in the country. In the past 14 months they have brought on 25 franchise units many of which are exclusive franchise partners with the rights to 3-5 franchise units.

Here’s what the brand has established in the U.S. market that is spurring the growth:

1. Swiss-Manufactured Automatic Espresso Machines: Xpresso Delight provide offices with a top of the line fully automatic espresso machines allowing office employees to make milk-based espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos right in the office with one touch of a button.  

2. Seamless Supply Chain: Xpresso Delight provides offices with a proprietary blend of 100% Arabica beans that was formulated to taste great both with milk or on its own. The beans are roasted fresh, then shipped directly from the roaster to the clients’ offices… This is huge! Franchisees save time and money on warehousing and distribution, and much more importantly, the client gets the freshest coffee possible arriving at their door. If you’re not a coffee aficionado, it is widely agreed upon that coffee brewed from beans that were just roasted yield the best flavor and quality. Because most of Xpresso Delight’s competitors are simply distributors, the quality of their offering cannot match.

3. Pay-Per-Cup Model: Xpresso Delight finds itself as a leader in another area of the office coffee category as well, as it created a pricing model commensurate with the American culture’s proclivity to subscription based services. People no longer want to make purchasing decisions, they’d rather pay a subscription fee for a monthly service, everything from streaming entertainment to razors and clothing. You pay as you go. Similarly, rather than locking companies into a long term lease of their machine, or simply charging for the actual coffee, Xpresso Delight charges its clients on a per cup basis. If the office drinks 1,000 cups of coffee in a month, they get charged for exactly that number through a monthly invoice. Centralized billing provided by the franchisor makes this easy for franchisees to manage, and office decision makers like the simple one line item invoice.

By including the top of the line automatic machine, the unmatched quality of the coffee beans, and a weekly cleaning service all for one pay-per-cup rate, Xpresso Delight finds itself taking more and more market share on a daily basis. Franchisees are encouraged to let offices put their service to the “taste test” against their current office coffee by offering 2 week free trials and letting the office employees choose the product they like best. It’s working.

To be the best in your F&B category, you must adapt to the ever changing technological advances in society, and you must innovate. We are the only office coffee service franchise in America, and we’re certainly not devoid of competition in our space, but for a franchisee looking for a unique category of franchise that is the leader in innovation in its industry, there’s no better place to start than Xpresso Delight.