A sustainable micro market solution for the head office staff of The London Fire Brigade.

The Challenge

With so many different shift patterns and staff members to cater to, The London Fire Brigade’s head office needed a flexible catering solution that provided special dietary requirements and healthy options on demand. Their previous contracted catering supplier was only able to prepare meals during lunchtime hours. This meant that their control staff, non-uniformed and non-operational staff, who had irregular shift patterns, did not have access to food and beverages onsite.

With the service already proving costly and unable to cater to all of their employee’s needs, the arrival of COVID-19 left the canteen unused for months. This forced the business to consider an alternative catering option which sparked discussions between The London Fire Brigade and Vending Sense to overcome their current challenges and provide a refreshed micro-market solution to their employees.

The Solution and Approach

With multiple requirements that needed considering, it was crucial that we, Vending Sense, were able to provide The London Fire Brigade with a beneficial and valuable solution. After multiple discussions to ensure that all of the needs were met, Vending Sense was selected as the supplier to install and operate an innovative micro-market solution in place of their existing contracted catering setup.

Dedicated to protecting people and places, The London Fire Brigade is also committed to looking after everyone’s future too. With their successful sustainability record, it was important that they provided a sustainable micro-market solution to their employees to continue to make a positive commitment towards a more sustainable future. With this in mind, Vending Sense brought to the attention of The London Fire Brigade that only ethically sourced fresh coffee beans are supplied and served in our biodegradable cups. Through our partnership, it will allow, employers, their employees, and any visiting guests to enjoy a hot beverage in the knowledge that they will be disposed of responsibly.

Multiple collaborative conversations then took place to ensure that all client and employee requirements were considered before the final design was agreed upon.

This then led to an agreed micro-market solution of two fridges for fresh food and cold beverages, four-level shelving units for snacks, two industrial microwaves, and two award-winning Coffetek Vitro X3 Coffee Machines with a self-scan till of cashless and contactless payments provided through a Nayax payment system.

Converting to this micro-market set-up meant that The London Fire Brigade’s eating area provided convenient and accessible access to meals and drinks onsite for all staff members when required, helping to boost energy, productivity, and overall well-being levels.

The Result

The London Fire Brigade’s partnership with Vending Sense saw multiple benefits including:

• 100% customer satisfaction – the successful outcome of the partnership with a fully managed micro-market solution saw a huge employee update and an increase in overall satisfaction
• 95% plastic free – Vending Sense provided The London Fire Brigade with a sustainable solution of fair-trade, ethical coffee and 95% of plastic-free products
• £1,000,000 saved – Vending Sense’s Micro-markets solutions saved The London Fire Brigade over £1,000,000 across five years
• 2-month timeframe achieved – with a tight deadline to be achieved, Vending Sense successfully installed the micro-market solution within the given timeframe

Micro Markets