Is it cheaper to hire a coffee service, or to invest in your own coffee equipment?
We get a good deal of inquiries from customers asking which is better in the long run, and we get a lot of customers who decided to get rid of their coffee service and buy their own equipment instead.
If you’re weighing the costs of hiring a coffee service vs. buying your own coffee brewer, let’s do the math to see what makes the most sense for you.
Using a Coffee Service
A service recently quoted a customer – a church – a price of $125/month to furnish 2 single coffee brewers and supply them with enough coffee to brew 120 cups every Sunday.
The church consumes 120/8 oz. cups of coffee every Sunday, which equals 960 ounces, or 7.5 gallons of coffee.
A standard 12-cup commercial brewer makes about one-half gallon of coffee in every batch, which means it takes 15 batches to brew 7.5 gallons of coffee.
If the church brews 15 batches of coffee every Sunday, plus about 10 during the week, that equals about 100 batches of coffee every month.
So, for $125, the customer gets enough coffee to brew 100 pots of coffee, plus the use of 2 brewers and about 6 airpots. The customer is paying $1.25/batch of coffee.
Buying Coffee Equipment
If the customer bought 2 Bunn Axiom APS Coffee Brewers, or 1 Twin Axiom APS, the cost would be about $1,300. Add on 6 airpots for $320 and the total cost, including shipping, is about $1,700.
At Sam’s Club, a case of 42 packets of Folgers coffee can be bought for $18.98, which equals $.45/pot. A month’s worth of coffee would cost $45.
The savings per month for buying versus a coffee service is $125 – $45 = $80 for the coffee.
With the savings of $80, it would take 21.25 months to pay for the coffee equipment.
If the coffee equipment lasts 10 years
Total cost for coffee service: $125 X 120 months = $15,000.
Total cost for buying coffee and equipment: $45 X 120 months = $5,400 + $1,700 = $7,100.
Savings when buying coffee equipment: $15,000 – $7,100 = $7,900.
In the long-term, it makes much more sense to invest in your own coffee brewing equipment. Now that we’ve answered your question, be sure to contact us to find your new coffee brewer!
Photo by torbakhopper, CC-BY-2.0.
