Coffee & Water Yin & Yang

Coffee & water Yin & Yang Rheavendors delivers a new approach to office health and wellness The laRhea Cool drink system, from Rheavendors, was premiered at the Watercoolers Europe annual event in Paris last October. Cooler Plus was keen to discover more about the story behind the launch of this revolutionary entry into the mix-your-own drinks category, so we spoke to board member Frieder Steigler. The Cooler Plus interview You have occupied a special place in vending and in the office coffee service business for many years. What was behind the decision to develop the laRhea Cool series? Although coffee and water have become the worldwide standard for beverage services in workplaces, horeca, institutes and so on, until now there has not been a customer oriented, professional and attractive machinery solution. The market has traditionally been divided into hot drinks and cold drinks machines, with manufacturers split into different service companies. Consequently, coffee and water machines always had two different designs, with two different ways for the consumer to interact / operate the machines. From the customer point of view, there was always the question: ‘Why two totally different machine systems?’, ‘Why two providers?’, and ‘Why two service companies?’ Although the service companies now offer more often this logical coffee-cool combination, the Readers of Cooler Plus might not be familiar with machinery is still totally different. The combination Rheavendors. Tell us a little about the company, its of mains fed water coolers with a coffee machine history, strengths and philosophy. does not look attractive, inviting, or sexy! The Each successful player in the beverage service decision to produce a new cool series alongside market tries to find a personalised, individual our successful coffee machines was therefore a combination of machines, products and services logic step. to offer a unique beverage concept to the market. How long did it take to bring laRhea Cool to market For over 60 years, Rheavendors expertise has been and what were the major challenges? to develop and produce individual, personalised As we had in mind to create a sexy hot and cool and/or branded machines to match customer’s ‘design couple’ with a small footprint, the challenge expectations and market requirements. was not only to built into the machine all the Three major aspects have contributed to the required parts, such as: cooling, carbonator, pumps, Rheavendors successful formula and drive its motors, and firewall technology. Our aim was that innovation heartbeat. the area around the machine should be clean and free of technical fittings / accessories. We also First and foremost, our strength is to listen to and decided therefore to place into the machine a CO2 to understand customers’ needs in detail. bottle, a bacteria-stop filter, and a classical water Secondly, the company combines customers’ filter. On top of that, we accommodate payment ideas with its 60 years of technical know-how, devices such as cardpay or a coinmec and of experience and expertise, and finally, it adds and course a ‘pay by phone’ device. develops extraordinary tailor-made design or branding to achieve the result – unique, special, To be able to offer ‘everything inside’, we therefore customized machines. developed the most compact cooling and 22 February ∙ March 2017 carbonisation system – which took two years to of top products will show develop. Finally, we created new and attractive up soon. However, our illumination, to catch the customers’ attention. laRhea Cool machines should always offer You offer different versions of laRhea Cool. What not only the standard, are they, and why? traditional cold drinks but We knew that some people found water ‘boring’ new kind of drinks with: and that they wanted more than just ‘hydration’ • as little sugar as possible la n all day! We also understood that there is a strong • on a natural base R e h re ea sc demand for enhanced water, fruity infused water, • with no artificial colours C h- oo uc new aromatic lemonades, and so on. Statistics • no preservatives l ha e to s an easy to us showed us that refreshment drinks represent 50% • gluten free of the total water consumption, so that was a • and with vitamins and minerals. strong clue as to what our machines had to be For example, laRhea Cool Aqua+ should offer new able to deliver. flavours, such as lemon with mint, green tea with With three models we can cover most customers’ ginger, or cranberry, or pink grapefruit. Those drinks cold drinks demands – all using the same base are refreshing, trendy and different. There are as laRhea Cool: cool Aqua, cool Aqua +, and cool some outstanding new concentrates available, Mixx. with vitamins and minerals – really healthy drinks to stabilise the body balance and to re-enforce • Aqua provides pure water – still, cold, or immunity. sparkling. With drinks like these, companies can increase • Aqua + gives all of Aqua’s water varieties plus a the fitness of their employees and lower absence range of drinks from refreshing lemonades and through sick-leave. ice cold teas, to energy or isotonic drinks. How can a vending operator feature laRhea Cool • cool Mixx includes Rheavendors’ patented in its portfolio? ‘Speed Mixx’ system which delivers on the ‘mix- your-own’ trend for cold drinks. There are two This is a very important question. We are totally different machine/product combinations: open to cooperate with the entire water cooler 1. the first is our ‘Summertime Coffee’ concept, industry. We do not have a ‘closed’ sales concept, which makes wonderful creamy and tasty meaning there is no agreement to tie in with drinks such as ice-cappuccino, ice-presso, ice- anyone in particular, and our new Cool series is not choc,ice-tea or milk mix drinks. This machine exclusively linked to our coffee machines. configuration is perfect for cafeterias, snackbars, coffeeshops and so on. 2. the second is our ‘Fruit juice – smoothie’ concept, which makes natural healthy juices and smoothies based on high quality fruit powders – or yogurt drinks. For both concepts, three to five different canisters plus three different mixers allow drinks to be made in different sizes from 15cl to 30cl. What kind of drinks will you recommend for laRhea Cool? You have often talked about ‘all natural’ and ‘healthy’. What should an operator offer to his clients? For a few years, there has clearly been a consumer trend towards natural, healthy drinks. The audience for organic (bio)/natural/green/sustainability products is growing day by day, so we therefore strongly recommend following this trend for drinks in our new machines. There are already some very nice products on the market which fulfil this demand and a new range February ∙ March 2017 23 Coffee & water Yin & Yang While our hot/cold combination is, from our point temperatures, one after the other. VARItherm is of view, the top solution, we are willing to consider variable and flexible and for this technology, we working with companies on the coffee or Cold have been awarded the European VENDINGstar. side of the opportunity. You can find how to get Our Cool range offers a new direct chill unit in contact with our European-wide structured which reaches a 4° water temperature within Rheavendors group on our website. 15-20 minutes (depending on the incoming For many operators, environmental sustainability is water temperature). This is energy saving and high of their list of essential criteria when it comes sustainability at its best. to specifying dispensing technologies. Where does laRhea Cool sit, in that respect? As we decided not to go for a capsule or for a bag-in-box system, but for an infused water or With this question you touch one of our most lemonade concept based on concentrates or attractive and interesting features. For example, powder, our machines prevent raw material waste. our coffee machines offer an energy saving From one sales unit with 5 litres of essences, our of up to 90% in comparison to traditional coffee machines produce for example 150-200 drinks. machines. Can you see the package savings? We have developed a unique, patented heating For our refreshment drinks, we also recommend system called VARItherm, based on induction the use of natural CO2 gas, and glasses or technology. This means there is no stand-by cups made out of corn. For sanitation of the heating at all – and no boiler, so therefore no machines, we recommend the use of new natural waste of electricity while the machine is not green products. functioning, waiting for the next cup to serve. Rheavendors’ production environmental The moment you choose your coffee, VARItherm sustainability record is legendary. The low CO2 will instantly heat the water in a second. In footprint is based on the fact that Rheavendors addition, each drink is creates at its individual suppliers are mostly local companies from the ideal water temperature. For example, coffee neighbourhood in a radius of only 20-30km. is brewed at 92°, but chocolate or milk, needs for a cappuccino needs only 76°. Making a As experts in vending and office coffee, what have latte macchiato therefore needs three different you seen as the most important developments in Rheavendors’ first product was a gumball machine! It was a casual spin-off from Aldo and Giuliana ‘60s Majer’s foundry business just outside of Milan, which supplied engine components for Alfa Romeo, kick-start pedals for the legendary Vespa scooter and components for Olivetti typewriters. A prototype sketch was commissioned from a young architect, Angelo Mangiarotti, who would soon become one of Italy’s first and greatest industrial designers. The result was a masterpiece of mechanical and formal simplicity – a powerful icon of the Italian sixties.

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