Cost Breakdown: What Companies Really Spend on Office Coffee

If you are an employer, then you must have noticed that your employees drink a lot of coffee. This is basically more than just a beverage nowadays. It is kind of like a fuel that keeps the entire workplace running, and you just know, even if you still haven’t tested it, that banning coffee in the workplace would result in a much lower productivity percentage. And, that is not what you want, so don’t even try and test it.

Here are some benefits of free coffee in the workplace: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/power-ten-10-benefits-free-good-coffee-workplace-hulbert-msc-fiwfm/ 

Of course, as every smart employer, instead of banning it, you’ve actually taken it upon yourself to provide your employees with their daily dose of coffee. So, you’ve probably made it available and free at the office. But, as every smart employer, you also have to think about the costs of all of this. After all, you do have a business to run.

So, you set down one day and you started researching. Apart from just looking at your books, you have started doing some research on other companies as well, trying to determine if what you spend on coffee is normal. And then, you have probably also started thinking about finding some solutions that could help you cut down those costs, which is definitely normal direction in which your mind will go after actually realizing how much you spend on everyone’s favorite beverage.

How Much Companies Spend on Office Coffee

Let us first discuss the topic of how much companies usually spend on this. Now, if you’re providing this yourself, if you have a coffee maker and you’re responsible for making sure that there are enough beans, pods and grounds, then chances are that your costs are a bit higher than the costs of companies using a different solution – one that we will get to a bit later. Let’s stick to this for a moment.

The prices of beans, pods and grounds definitely vary. So, when trying to figure out office coffee costs, if you’re a new business for example, and trying to decide if you want to be responsible for this all on your own or if you want to get a delivery service, which is the solution I’ve hinted at above already, then you’ll have to compare the costs. And you’ll have to keep in mind those varying prices.

But then, there are also other costs that you may have overlooked. Such as, for example, not only getting, but also maintaining the equipment. Espresso machines, single-serve machines, commercial drip brewers… Those can all cost a lot, and maintaining them will cost too. Not to mention that the equipment will break down from time to time, and you’ll need to pay for repairs.

I am not going to dive into the numbers for all these items respectively. You do, however, need to know the ballpark figure. And, it may surprise you. Basically, if you’re doing things this way – the old-fashioned way –  you can expect to spend anywhere between $70 and $120 per employee in the course of a month on coffee. That is a lot, and it can undeniably accumulate, depending on how many employees you actually have.

What Is the Solution?

What is the solution to that, though? Is there a way for you to reduce those costs, but without having to eliminate the coffee from the office altogether? After all, you understand that this wouldn’t be good for morale or productivity, and that it would undeniably be a wrong business move. And then, you are also a human being who understands your employees’ need for coffee, so you don’t really want to deprive them of that. Read more about the role of this beverage in workplace wellness.

The good news, though, is that there undeniably is a solution to this – a solution that doesn’t require you to be a bad boss and just stop providing your workers with coffee. In short, what I am talking about, and what I have hinted at above already, is the idea of using office coffee delivery services, and thus letting a third-party, that is, another company, deal with your employees’ caffeine needs. By using this service, you will certainly get to cut costs quite a lot, and you can expect to pay anywhere between $50 and $70 per employee during a month, which is a lot less than what you have been paying, or would be paying, with the traditional method.

Of course, the trick is in finding the right company that will offer you amazing services. So, take your time to carefully research different ones, check their experience, their reputation, as well as the general quality of their services, and their coffee for that matter, before agreeing to anything. Naturally, don’t forget to compare the prices offered by different companies, and then compare all the other info as well, and make your final choice.