They have realised that the water cooler business model is ripe for expansion into other areas, namely office coffee services and multi-drinks dispensing. Looking at the major cooler companies such as Eden Springs and Waterlogic, this is an obvious trend.
Eden began its 2012 coffee acquisition trail back in March with its buyout of Thécafé in the Netherlands. In May, it launched a new coffee service and followed this with two further coffee solutions acquisitions in two very different regions: DrinkSo in France and Kafijas Automati in Latvia.
As if this wasn’t enough to signal intent, the company also launched its very own coffee brand, Edenissimo.
Waterlogic also followed suit, acquiring Det Stavangerske Kaffeselskap (DSK) in January, allowing the DSK coffee machine business to expand into the existing Waterlogic customer base and branch offices throughout Norway and Denmark.
The company has also made moves in the US coffee and water business with the purchase of Taylor Made Water Systems in Northern California in August.
Perhaps this is just the tip of the iceberg. The water cooler industry, while still enjoying growth in some areas such as mains-fed coolers and new filtration methods, as well as emerging markets, is certainly stagnating in its mature bottled water areas.
Finding new revenue streams is critical, and if your existing customers have new drink requirements, it’s a really good idea to offer them what they need. There’s also an ever-growing range of bean-to-cup vending and espresso coffee machines available to water cooler companies, offering everything the office market could desire and more.
I expect to be reporting a lot more on this trend in 2013. Combined water and coffee businesses are the future.
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