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Can smaller brands win customers over with coffee offerings?
To help smaller brands create coffee concoctions to compete for customers, Nestlé Professional has created the Nescafé Dolce Gusto Majesto, a $300 coffee maker that low-volume brands may use to offer customers up to 15 coffee beverages.
March 25, 2019 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
The U.S. coffee shop market is one of the biggest businesses in the U.S., and it's buzzing with growth. In fact, it hit 45.4 billion last year, according to Allegra World Coffee Portal's 2019 Project Café USA report, which determined that there were 35,616 coffee stores nationwide.
The report revealed that the number of coffee outlets will grow to 40,800 by 2023, with a 5-year CAGR growth of 2.8 percent, which means that restaurant brands hoping to compete for coffee customers must step up their games. Allegra said the coffee growth is stemming from a '5th wave sector', which comes from increased consumer sophistication and larger multinational investments.
"The 5th Wave is characterized by hyper-professionalism, operational excellence, investment in technology, and training and people development programmes — ultimately supporting valuable career paths for a new breed of hospitality professionals," the report said.
Although the three largest coffee-focused chains in the U.S. — Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Hortons — comprise 68.1 percent of the total branded market, other restaurant brands are hoping to grab a piece of the action by upgrading their coffee offerings.
"Operators must successfully combine convenience, coffee quality and good location to maintain footfall, with loyalty apps, product diversity and a compelling brand USP all essential factors to success," Allegra said.
To help those brands compete in the coffee market, Nestlé Professional has created the Nescafé Dolce Gusto Majesto, a $300 coffee maker that low-volume brands may use to offer customers a variety of 15 coffee beverages. Using a touchscreen, restaurant workers can create frothy lattes, creamy cappuccinos, steamy espressos, and other specialty coffees.
According to Nestlé Professional, the NDG Majesto is a good choice for small restaurants because it:
- Has a low labor requirement and requires minimal training.
- Has a small footprint.
- Is cheaper to purchase than traditional manual espresso machine.
- Eliminates the need to maintain fresh milk for specialty drinks.
- Allows for menu expansion without adding operational complexity.
- Reasonable food cost with ample room for marginal profit.
- Sleek design that looks great behind a bar.
FastCasual's parent company, Networld Media Group, had the opportunity to test out the Majesto at the corporate office in Louisville, Kentucky. Our employees were happy to participate by drinking free coffee in exchange for their opinions. See below for their reviews:
The first thought of seeing the device was that of the Jetsons' — some futuristic looking design — I like.
The visual screen is foolproof and makes it easy to select the type of coffee you want to prepare from the many selections. Swipe left-right makes it easy to find your desired concoction quickly. Quickly dispenses the drink and temperature is spot on.
For commercial use, I'm sure hooking up to the water supply is a must. To fill the water reservoir — the flip back door could have used some better material. The latch is very hard to open and takes some patience. Filling once you do get the door propped back is pretty easy.— Dave Wurm, Senior Media Specialist
I think the aesthetics was nice, ease of use not so much as it was a two-step process while most machines these days are one step, GUI interface was okay but I looked at the book to fully understand what I needed to do. I tried the Caramel Macchiato and it was pretty good. — Debra Estes King, Senior Media Specialist
About Cherryh Cansler
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