Grow Your C-Store Margins Per Cup with Concordia

Reducing labor costs while increasing margins in convenience stores may seem like a contradiction. How can your store utilize less staff, keep customers happy and get repeat business? By implementing automation with Concordia automatic coffee and espresso machines, retailers can provide the best drinks possible by serving espresso-based beverages that today’s convenience store customer demands.

Coffee is the core of c-store beverages, but using traditional decanters can impact service. Dirty decanters create bad-tasting coffee and brewing a variety of flavors through the day slows service. Add in not having enough coffee ready at one time, and all of these things decrease customer satisfaction, increase waste and reduce sales. Concordia’s super automatic machines help by reducing labor costs and providing the best convenience store coffee. 

Reducing Costs With iOT

Incorporating iOT not only helps with reducing labor costs but also with eliminating downtime. With Open Kitchen available on the Concordia Ascent Touch, c-store managers receive real-time alerts through text and email to advise when equipment needs maintenance or has issues. This helps avoid problems and revenue-losing downtime before they occur, along with avoiding expensive service calls that aren’t necessary.

Open Kitchen also allows for remote recipe distribution across units, saving time while eliminating the need for staff in each store to save recipes to the machine. This comes in handy when running limited time offers (LTO) on revenue-driving drink recipes. For example, if your convenience store has multiple locations and wants to promote an LTO on iced coffees in hot weather, instantly send the recipe out to the entire fleet of Ascent Touch machines via iOT. Each location will receive the exact recipe on their machine.

Increasing Speed of Service

The average convenience store customer spends less than five minutes inside, so providing quick service is crucial. Both the Ascent Touch coffee machine and the Xpress espresso machine are easy to use and do not require any special training. In less than 25 seconds, the Xpress can deliver over 1,000 drink combinations with the touch of a button. The Ascent Touch is just as fast and efficient, brewing a perfectly ground cup of coffee in 30 seconds at the touch of a button. Both the Xpress and the Ascent Touch simplify cleaning. Simply select the cleaning cycle and let the machine do the rest. Daily maintenance is instantly easier and can be performed by anyone without the risk of human error or downtime.

Consistency Across The Board

Having a consistent offering and achieving the same flavor, no matter which stores in a chain you visit is important to keeping customers happy and becoming repeat buyers. Constantly brewing high-quality espresso drinks, the Xpress has the patented EspressJet™ Flavor System that infuses syrup right into the milk. Everything from the grind, extraction, temperature, and flavor profile can be programmed, so there’s consistency across locations. For customers looking for a hot cup of coffee, the Ascent Touch brews up to two, three, or four different bean roasts or varieties in the same machine. Grinding whole beans on demand ensures your c-store is always serving the freshest cup of joe, every time. 

Discover more revenue opportunities with our drink cost calculator.