Renting Espresso machine in Singapore is cheap!
The coffee suppliers has made selling or renting espresso machine in Singapore so competitive that very often, you not only get a very low-cost coffee machine rental (the base cost can be lower than a Bialetti Moka pot which goes for less than $30!), at times you can even get it for free!
And in this article, you will find answers on these coffee machine rental questions:
Coffee Machine Rental Questions
Contact us if you need help to find a free coffee machine for your Singapore Office (and do not feel free reading anymore:)
1 Can you rent an espresso machine?
Yes. Rental of coffee machine usually applies to either the office or food and beverage establishments. This is because brands such as Nescafe Dolce Gusto or Nespresso Machines are able to bring quality espresso for your coffee at home at such low prices that we do not think anyone will be thinking about renting it for home use.
People that are new to this industry, are often bewildered by why companies will be giving their thousands of dollars coffee machines at such low or even no rental.
See also: How much does it cost to rent a coffee machine?
2 Is an espresso machine the same as a coffee machine?
No. In this coffee machine rental industry:
Espresso machine refers to a bean to cup coffee machine, such as fully automatic coffee machines like the Nouva Simonelli Pronto Bar shown in the video below.
While coffee machine generally refers to instant coffee machine from company such as Nescafe (trivia: Nescafe Lioness is one of the most common office coffee machine in Singapore).
3 Is it worth getting an espresso machine?
Yes. Especially if you going into the coffee machine rental or free on loan model.
Renting espresso machine in Singapore (offices) is in fact dirt cheap. It doesn't stop there. The situation in the food and beverage industry is even more competitive.
For example, for less than $6.70 per day, or the price of a cappuccino, you get to own one of the world's best espresso machine (a La Marzocco fully automatic or a La Pavoni lever espresso maker). For that price, you can also get to choose a Nuova Simonelli, Schaerer, Franke etc.
Many coffee suppliers will not want to admit it (because they are selling the espresso machines as well), but renting a machine is really better value than buying it!
4 It is possible to not pay for the coffee machine rental?
Yes, and that will be Free On Loan. Similar to the concept of renting, where you will need to purchase (on a monthly basis) the coffee beans from the roaster or the coffee suppliers, the only difference is you do not need to pay any rent for the espresso machine.
The coffee supplier will even take care of the maintenance of the coffee machine, all you need to do is the purchase of the coffee beans.
See also: How Much does Office Coffee Cost?
5 Why are coffee machine suppliers doing this (low or no rental) model?
The low or no coffee machine rental price situations seen in Singapore today has its roots in the office coffee machine sector.
Started in the mid-90's, many companies begin investing in good espresso machines in their offices, either as employees’ benefits or to uplift the productivity.
One of the first few company that started offering coffee machines to offices is Nestle with their lioness H5 machine at a very low $0.20 per serve (per cup of coffee).
Fast forward to 2022, many cafes and coffee shops are also branching out into office coffee solutions by offering their coffee (most are using third party roasting facilities) and typing up with a machine supplier mainly due to the "acquire and lock"1 nature of the business and the large pool of offices in Singapore.
This has intensify the competition that is already in this industry.
With the low prices started by Nestle offering their instant coffee machine. Offices are always comparing prices and looking for the best deals, thus, most of the office coffee suppliers offers low or no rental for their coffee or espresso machines.
1: Selling coffee to an office involves a contract of at least 1 year, this translates to a monthly fix sales for coffee company, compare to the fluctuating sales selling in the out of home food services.
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Most of these are super-automatic machines that not only make cafe-quality coffee, but are also able to produce different types of coffee such as espresso, cappuccino latte etc.
Other than the super-automatic espresso machines. The suppliers also offers a wide variety of office coffee machines (e.g. instant, single serve etc), and all of them are able to produce quality good coffee with packages that starts as low as $6.70 per day**.
And this low cost rental model (in some cases free on loan) is one reason why many offices in Singapore are using beans to cup, super automatic coffee machines instead of 3-in-1 instant coffee.
In 2019, we did an office coffee consumption survey, and noted that espresso machines penetration in the offices was much higher than instant coffee machine (contrary to popular industry belief that the latter has a higher penetration rate).
**If you are wondering why we are using $6.70 as a benchmark, this is the average price of a cafe or coffee shops' beverage. Through this, we hope to use this to illustrate how low the price you are paying to rent a coffee or espresso machine.
6 When you should not do espresso machine rental?
Now that you see the low cost structure of renting and also the value add, what are the drawbacks for such a deal?
The main drawback about renting espresso machine in Singapore is the coffee. Because at $6.70 per day, there is no way the espresso machine company can make any money.
So, they need to sell the coffee beans to you in order to break even. If you take up the rental model, you will need to buy Their coffee beans. You will not be able to choose any other coffee roasting companies' coffee beans.
And that is the only drawback about the whole deal.
Who should not be renting an espresso machine?
If you hate to be tied down with terms and conditions, and need to experiment with other coffee beans, then this might not be for you.
You should instead learn more about buying and owning an espresso machine instead -which has its own merits as well. Or, you can explore the possibility of owning one by going for used espresso machines.
Sponsored: When we are talking about espresso machines, one of the thing you need to take note of is espresso machine cleaning.
Renting Coffee machines: Food and Beverage Industry.
Should you be renting an espresso machine if you are running a F&B joint, e.g. restaurant?
- Yes. If coffee is not your main focus but food, then yes. This is because, other than saving on the initial outlay (purchase price of the espresso machine, which can be thousands of dollars), you also do not need to worry about the maintenance of the machine.
A trip by the coffee machine supplier technician to service your machine will set you back by at least $80/-.
- No. If you are running a cafe, then you will need to be in control of your coffee, the roast etc. Renting a coffee machine (especially free on loan) subject you to using the supplier, coffee beans. So, in this case, you might want to be buying a machine instead.
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7 And our recommendations on how you can enjoy this?
For coffee shop business that is just starting up, investing an amount of $8000.00 or more on a coffee machine can be a significant amount. Similarly, for the offices that are using this to boost employee productivity, the outlay of cash is quite a lot.
Renting it lower the cash outlay, and allows the owner to channel their cash into other places to grow their coffee shop.
For F&B owners: rent the coffee machine and you can simply just focus on selling your food and beverages.
For offices: Go for the free on loan model and pay nothing for the espresso machines!
Some other Coffee Machines you can consider:
Check out the machines that you can get for as low as $6.70/day or even free:
If you have intention to buy, you can consider the Sanremo, small footprint, ideal for offices.
Nuova Simonelli Pronto Bar
Learn more about renting Nouva Simonelli Pronto bar.
Schaerer Coffee Prime
Learn more about renting Schaerer Coffee Prime espresso machine.
Schaerer Coffee Art Plus
Read more about fully automatic Schaerer Coffee Art Plus to perhaps rent it for your office.
Or drop us a message below to enquire about other espresso machines or to a free on loan coffee machine for your F&B or office.
About US | OCM Profile
OCM (OnCoffeeMakers.com) was started in 2007 with the first webpage about coffee machines. And for a number of years, we focused on helping people find their desired coffee machine (we still are helping folks with that! So, if you are looking for coffee machines for office or restaurants - check out the link).
In 2010, we started getting enquiries on restaurant marketing and we start to help food and beverage brands with their marketing. Below are campaigns and events that we have done over the years:
OCM's campaigns: F&B Marketing Ideas by OCM
OCM's Events: F&B Industry events by or with OCM
Check out this restaurant marketing guide to learn more about the many campaigns and companies we have worked with.
Since then, we have also created many marketing workshops and classes for the F&B industry. Many of these modules are still running in tertiary institutions such as Temasek Polytechnic Skillsfuture Academy and also ITE College East COC classes, below are some snippets of our lectures and workshops:
OCM’s F&B workshops: Food and Beverage Marketing Lectures | Workshops - click to watch classes on customer journey map, JTBD and more.
So, if you are looking for industry practitioners to help you scale your coffee or F&B businesses, do drop us a message or book an appointment. Do also check out our various social media platforms on regular F&B and coffee market updates:
For regular coffee (F&B) related videos: OCM Youtube
For Daily Coffee Inspiration (fun coffee content): OCM IG
For insights into the coffee (F&B) industry: OCM LinkedIN
PS: For the coffee lovers, we continue to share coffee articles (and videos) and have also started a free coffee class section (with free online coffee training supported by coffee partners).
