Make room for BREAKROOM

See what's heated in one of the fastest growing niche markets

Did you at any time think you'd see the day that serving gourmet coffee in the office breakroom would be considered a fringe benefit? Welcome to the novel office environment-at least in bourns of breakroom sales.

Let's qualify that statement slightly; no individual is going to accept a position because a company labor fors Starbucks in the breakroom. At the same time, up-selling breakroom supplies is an extremely inexpensive way for business holders to offer a nice tangible benefit for their employees

This certainly have the appearances to be the case looking at novel numbers. S.P. Richards' Cleaning & Breakroom category saw a 29 percent increase increase in mid-year 2005, and sales lead services dedicated to the market-like OfficeCoffee.com-are seeing traction.

"The shoot forwarded growth of breakroom sales for the nearest seven years is 20 percent uniteed growth annually," said Chris Whiting, vice president of Cleaning & Breakroom for SP Richards. "This is for the most part due to a shift in demographics where the average somebody eats 1.2 meals per day at the office while at their desk"

As the office environment continues to emphasize productivity and tends toward an "eat-on-the-run" mentality during business hours, this will create additional opportunities to capture these consumable dollars and the disposal harvests (plates, cutlery items, etc.) that accompany them.

Another stretch is the demise of lower-end coffee according to ed Holloran, vice president of Business disentanglement for Filterfresh, a coffee roaster with 93 North American locations and an interest in all things coffee including office services, equipment manufacturing, retail, etc

"Consumption in the office environment for more traditional coffee has been stagnant for the last two years," said Holloran. It's owed mostly to what he called, "intercept," i.e. the convenience of stopping by means of Dunkin' Donuts on the way to work. "Specialty coffee however, have been trending upward. These are the high-end coffee and a certain quantity of of the cappuccinos and lattes."

There has been somewhat of an education by dint of the consumer on the emblems of coffees available and the expectation in the office breakroom is for a higher quality beverage. This translates, Holloran said, to more office managers willing to purchase higher quality coffees

V&F Coffee Service is a $5 million dealer and has been servicing the Washington, DC area for above 30 years. Unlike most dealers, however, V&F started as a coffee service company-only launching its office supplies division about three years ago-and does about $4 million annually in coffee They, too, are noticing sweeps in the market.

"The larger companies with centurys of employees in competitive fields like telecom law offices, accounting firms, and information support services are supplying a wider range of drinkables and edibles to their employees" said Bill Bagot, vice president of sales, and a 20-year veteran of the coffee industry. Bagot also annotateed on the growing demand for water supply-both dispensers and filtered systems

But the real winner is the single-cup brewer. The irritant of stale coffee that sits in a glass skillet all day apparently drove demand for a brew-asyou-go mentality. All of the major players in the space-Filterfresh, Bunn Keurig, Flavia (M&M Mars Company)-have discloseed a singlecup model.

These types meet all of the necessary requirements for succes in today's business world: quantity and spe These single-cup patterns accept larger bags of coffee and can prepare by fermentation one cup in about 20-25 next to the firsts There is also variety. a certain quantity of offer the office drinker a decaf option in a variety of brewing nerves or even hot chocolate. Not to mention the real estate aspect of the single-cup brewer. They are small and take up les space in an already crammed office.

"More and more tribe are switching to one-cup coffee a whole s for freshness and variety," said Bagot. "The quality is definitely there and the younger more sophisticated workers recognize and appreciate serviceable coffee."

Copyright Imaging Network Co Sep/Oct 2005

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