The real cost of short vs. long contracts for commercial coffee machines

If you’re looking for a coffee machine for your office, renting is usually the most popular option. And one of the first questions we hear is, “how much does it cost?”

The answer isn’t as simple as a flat number. Your monthly price depends on the length of your contract. Most suppliers will offer different contract lengths, ranging from as short as three months to up to ten years!

In this article, we’ll break down the real cost of renting a coffee machine from FreshGround for a year. We’ll compare the prices of the shortest and longest contracts that we offer, and examples of when each type can be useful for businesses. By the end, you’ll have an idea of which option is most cost-effective and appropriate for your business.

So what’s the price?

We will compare the price of a year of renting a commercial coffee machine, with an economical and a luxury-by-design option. This is so that you can see what the yearly cost would be, as this is how most businesses forecast their budgets.

Economical

The F3 Jura GIGA X8 has historically been one of our most popular machines.

On a 3-month contract, you will spend about £93 a week on the unit, and a full-coverage service plan. Over the span of a year, with the initial installation fee included, you will spend roughly £5445.

On a 5-year contract, you will spend about £71 a week on the unit, and a full-coverage service plan. Over the span of a year, with the initial installation fee included, you will spend around £3861.

Opting for a long-term contract does work out almost two grand cheaper. This is because a longer contract spreads the cost, so you pay less in each installment.

Luxury-by-design

The F5 Egro NEXT is our top spec machine, with a capacity of up to 400 drinks a day.

On a 3-month contract, you will spend about £216 a week for just the unit and full coverage service plan. Over a year, renewing quarterly, you would spend roughly £11,854 for the machine, service and installation.

Then on a 5-year plan, one year of ownership would cost around £8919. That covers service and installation in the first month.

When a short contract makes sense

So, now you know the difference in price, let’s talk about the benefits of short-term contracts.

Short contracts can be the right choice in certain scenarios. For example, if you’re:

In a temporary office
Still working out how much coffee your team drinks
Running a seasonal or project-based workforce
Looking to try out a new coffee provider without long-term commitment

A short contract gives you the ability to work out exactly what works for your team and what doesn’t.

Here are some anonymised examples of our customers who needed a three month contract and why it worked for them.

1. Co-working space reviewing their amenities offerings

A luxury co-working space provider came to us after exploring the options on the market for premium coffee.

They were interested in trying out a different provider, as they weren’t convinced that their current one met their needs. But, they didn’t want to get locked into a long contract without experiencing their offerings and servicing first.

Their operations team asked us about our high-capacity commercial coffee machines and enquired about our shortest contract lengths. We were able to offer them a three month plan to help their operations team to compare FreshGround with their current provider, and assess the best fit.

2. Law firm looking for coffee for temporary office

A global law firm was moving to a temporary office space while their building underwent a massive refurb.

We were the only provider they could find that offered a short enough contract. So we were able to set them up in their temporary office with a proper refreshment solution.

Other considerations

When deciding on your ideal contract length, you should also consider the level of service that you are committing to.

We offer Essential Care and Complete Care plans, which you can read about here. The Essential Care plan covers reactive maintenance if something goes wrong, so you can be covered in the event of a breakdown. Complete Care includes planned preventative maintenance and filtration management in addition.

When thinking about the length of contract you want, you should consider the machine’s longevity, and how proper servicing will help extend it.

For long-term contracts where you intend to keep the same machine for the duration, Complete Care would help keep your machine running properly the entire way. Minimising downtime is important when you consider the knock-on effect that it has on your team. So make sure you opt for the right service plan.

You should also consider how long you will be at your site before selecting a contract. It sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often businesses opt for 5-year plans and try to cancel a year later when they move to new premises.

Common concerns for long contracts

It’s worth acknowledging that customers can sometimes be nervous to lock-in for a long contract. We totally get it, five years is a long time! But we always point out to people that unless you are expecting to close your business soon, your team will still need coffee in five years. So make sure you check in with your C-suite and ensure they aren’t planning on relocating the business two years down the line.

If you move site, we can move with you. If you need to scale up or down, whether its because of cost or headcount, we will be happy to oblige. The long term contracts that we offer have the benefit of this added flexibility. It allows us to work closely with your business needs.

We have this option available to our customers because of our in-house ownership of the machines we rent out. Suppliers that offer third party leasing may not offer this option.

Hopefully, that provides some clarity. And empowers you to feel confident in your commercial coffee machine plan.