Sell More Drinks with Chewblet Ice By Follett

People are particular about their ice. In some cases, certain types of ice can even develop devout followings that border on obsessive. For operators, this means there’s an easy way to drive additional beverage sales.

So, what kind of ice is that popular? Chewblet ice.

Chewblet Ice

Chewblet® ice comes in small nuggets that are great for crunching and tend to absorb flavors. At the fountain, that means consumers get cold beverages filled with ice that pulls in the flavors of the liquid. If that liquid is something like a sweet soda, it turns the ice into another layer of flavor. Essentially, the ice becomes like candy. Once people get to know the experience of Chewblet ice, or in many cases, when they learn this type of ice actually has a name, they become customers for life.

So how many customers will Chewblet ice bring back? How devout are these customers? What does this translate to in terms of sales and profits?

Chewblet ice is preferred twice as much as standard, cubed ice. Customers report driving out of their way to get beverages filled with Chewblet ice, and one operator even reported a 25 percent increase in fountain drink sales after installing Follett Chewblet ice machines across his convenience store chain.

Follett Ice Machines: The next level of sanitation.

Many fountain dispensing systems have ice machines mounted right on top of the beverage dispenser. Besides being unattractive, this means that it is almost impossible to effectively clean and sanitize the fountain dispenser without the expense of removing the ice machine to clean the ice storage portion of the dispenser. That’s where Follett’s exclusive RIDE technology can help provide ice up to 75 feet away.

With Follett’s RIDE technology, the ice machine can be placed up to 75 feet away from the dispenser, often in a back room. This gives your fountain a nice clean look, the beverage dispenser can be easily cleaned and sanitized, and the ice machine can be cleaned and maintained away from the customer’s view – a triple win for operators. To top it all off, Follett ice machines, with their essentially closed water systems, won’t build up all that mold and slime seen in conventional cube-type ice machines with open recirculating water systems. Another plus in today’s world where food contamination is of heightened concern.

Cost of ownership counts, too.

When you add it all up, Horizon Elite Ice Machines from Follett actually deliver a lower cost of ownership when compared to other brands due to reduced water use, reduced scale build-up, and semi-automatic cleaning routines.

Follett’s patented scale-inhibiting design will isolate and expel high scale water in low volume flushes. This reduces scale build-up and allows for higher water efficiency, using up to 50 percent less water than comparable cubers, a factor that delivers ROI on the life of the unit. It also saves operators more immediate expenses, too, reducing or eliminating the need for additional descaling efforts that require additional costs and labor. When you do need to clean the ice machine, the easy-to-use semi-automatic cleaning function allows the machine to be cleaned and sanitized in an hour or less, often by store personnel and not by expensive service calls.

Follett is a registered trademark of Follett Products, LLC. Registered in U.S.

As you can see, ice can be one of the most profitable components of your beverage program. And the team behind Middleby Beverage Solutions is here to help identify profit opportunities specific to your operation.

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Topics: Beverage