A coffee robot sells mostly in the morning and when it is cold. Ice cream sells in the afternoon and in fine weather. Installing an ice cream robot next to a coffee robot therefore means selling at moments when coffee sells less, in a venue already found and already negotiated. The ice cream robot then complements the coffee rather than becoming a second gamble. Here is what the pair changes for profitability, operations and space, and what to check before getting started.
The price of each machine and the margin scenarios are on the investment page: they are not copied here, so that they stay up to date.
Two products, two moments of sale
Coffee is a habit purchase: the morning break, the return from lunch, waiting for a train. Ice cream is an impulse purchase driven by desire: an afternoon of shopping, a family outing, a hot day. The two machines therefore do not compete for the same customers at the same time; they share the day. The two menus can even echo each other: iced drinks on the coffee side in summer, richer ice creams on the ice cream side in winter.
This sharing also works across the year:
- winter: coffee dominates
- spring: ice cream sales pick up
- summer: ice cream sells the most
- autumn: coffee takes over again
A covered venue that is busy all year round (shopping centre, station, campus) evens out these gaps even further. The pair does not guarantee steady sales, however: each product keeps its season, and the footfall of the venue remains the first variable. Our article on the risks of investing in a coffee vending machine explains how to build a 12-month forecast, low months included.
A better-used venue
Finding a good venue takes time: spotting the site, convincing its owner, negotiating the fee. Installing two machines rather than one makes better use of that work:
- a single venue owner and a single negotiation
- a single trip to restock and clean both machines
- the same management app to follow the sales, stock and alerts of both
The contract must then cover both machines: the fee for each, the space they occupy, the electricity, the term. Our article on the coffee robot location contract details the clauses to negotiate; if you start with a single machine, plan for the arrival of the second one from the outset.
Space and electricity for two machines
Two machines need two footprints, plus the walkway in front of each counter: the customer waiting for a coffee must not get in the way of the one collecting an ice cream. Each machine has its own power supply, to be approved by an electrician, and the floor must bear their weight. The dimensions and power of each appear on the technical sheets of the coffee robot and ice cream robot pages.
Finally, check the connection: each machine needs one for card payment and remote monitoring.
Profitability: two calculations, then one sum
Each machine has its own sales, its own costs and its own break-even point. The right method is to simulate each machine separately, with your own sales assumptions for the venue, then to add the margins together. Our article on how to calculate profitability details the method, and the one on investing in an ice cream robot covers what changes for ice cream: the cost per ice cream, VAT and the season.
What works in favour of the pair:
- venue costs that can be shared, if the venue owner agrees
- selling prices you set freely, machine by machine, from the app
- impulse purchases, especially for ice cream, from customers already there for coffee
- a single trip for two machines
What works against it: a second investment, new fixed costs, and a venue that needs enough footfall for two. If the coffee robot struggles to reach break-even, adding an ice cream robot will not save the location.
The figures in the simulator are projections: no machine is yet operated by a ROBOKAFÉ customer, and we publish no "observed" margin.
Operations that stay manageable
Two machines do not double everything. Restocking and cleaning are done machine by machine, but during a single visit: the trip, often the longest part, happens only once. The time each machine requires is set out on the investment page. Support, which is optional, is taken out per machine.
On the management side, a second machine can change your situation: higher turnover, a larger investment. Our article on the taxation of a coffee robot raises the question of status when a second machine is added.
Start with one machine, add the other later
Nothing requires installing both at once. Starting with the machine that best suits the venue, then adding the second once the first one's sales have confirmed the footfall, lets you decide on real figures rather than on a projection.
Which machine to install first? The one that matches the venue's rhythm. In offices, a hospital or a station, where people arrive early and wait, coffee sells from the morning and all year round. In a leisure park, a tourist site or a gallery visited by families in the afternoon, ice cream may be the better starting point. In a shopping centre open all year, both hold their own: observe who passes by, and at what time.
In that case, reserve the space in the first contract, and check that the electrical installation can take a second machine. These are two points that are easy to obtain at the start and hard to negotiate later.
Venues that suit the pair
The coffee and ice cream pair works wherever there is footfall all day and pause moments:
- shopping centres and shopping galleries
- stations and airports
- campuses and large company sites
- gyms and leisure areas
- tourist sites open all year round
The criteria for judging a venue are in our article on choosing the location, and the advantages specific to ice cream in the one on the benefits of an ice cream robot.
See both machines in service
ROBOKAFÉ's two demonstration machines, a coffee robot and an ice cream robot, serve passers-by at the Galerie des Champs, on the Champs-Élysées. It is an opportunity to see the pair at work in a single venue: book a demonstration. To discuss a specific venue, describe your project to us.
