A disruptor brand is entering the forecourt trade’s coffee to go category – with a loyalty app which rewards customers at the point of purchase, and more realistic pricing in a sector it says has “lost its way”.
Scott Martin, the entrepreneur behind Unity Coffee, was a co-founder of the business which pioneered self-service premium espresso machines in petrol filling stations, at a time that instant coffee dominated. The company, Coffee Nation, was acquired in 2001 by Costa Coffee’s parent company, at the time Whitbread.
Martin says that as a bystander, having been out of the industry for the past five years, he became aware that there is a need to inject greater competition in an industry which is overcharging customers, who are paying almost as much for a hot drink in a petrol station as they are in trendy coffee shop in Shoreditch.
“The category [in the petrol filling industry] is not growing to the extent it should be despite being turbo-charged on the high street where it is growing in double digit percentage points and adapting to consumers’ tastes,” he says.
He is pitching prices at 25% lower than standard high street retails, at £2.75 for a flat white – around £1 less than the typical price on the high street. Other barista-quality drinks offered by the Unity Coffee machines include espresso, other specialty coffees, a matcha, and hot chocolate, with dairy or plant-based options.
And Martin says that by encouraging customers to use its mobile app, alongside tap and go and manual payments, operators who have the machines can give personalised offers, such as £1 latte Wednesdays or 50p off a drink in the next two hours.
Unity Coffee is already talking to Top 50 Indies about its proposition which is available on a revenue share model in which the company provides the machine, consumables and all of the ingredients apart from the fresh milk itself.
It aims to have over 500 installations in place in the next 24 months, with forecourts being a major target, alongside other retail, transport, leisure and educational locations.
“The coffee-to-go market has let customers down for years – overpriced drinks and the same tired experience,” says Martin. “Unity Coffee is leading a new movement, delivering exceptional coffee at fairer prices through smart technology, dynamic loyalty and instant rewards that serve customers. We’re going to take on big coffee and give the power back to the people,” he adds.
Following Whitbread’s acquisition of Coffee Nation and rebrand to Costa Express, Martin led expansion to a 14,000-machine network that became a cornerstone of Coca-Cola’s £3.9 billion acquisition of Costa Coffee.
Today, Martin holds several non-executive director roles for a number of tech-first businesses helping brands to accelerate growth.
