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bone are distributors for Milwau- kee, WI-based Rishi teas, an award winning brand. "Tea does so well, it's crazy how many SKUs we have of it," said Carbone. Most of the tea the Classic Group sells is to retailers and restaurants. The company's main advantage with forming these exclusive part- nerships has been their dedication to service. "When we're working for partnership, they need to feel com- fortable we can produce what we say we will," said Klong. That includes providing quality products, timely delivery and, most importantly, the proper equipment servicing. "Service is really important to the coffee side of the business," said Carbone. "There is someone on-call and working 24/7 at our operation, including holidays." "Chicago's Coffees and Teas sig- nifcantly improved what was already a high level of service for the Clas- sic Group," Klong added. In fact, the service end of the business is grow- ing. Klong and Carbone have made arrangements with several equipment suppliers to provide equipment main- tenance in the Chicago area. That includes restaurants and cafes using the equipment as well as large offces, that don't use the Classic Group's vending, OCS or micro market ser- vice. Many of these locations can't wait until the next day for equipment to be repaired, so the service depart- ment has been a positive selling asset for Klong and Carbone. Providing good service isn't just about having on-call technicians who may also be trained baristas, but also in training the location on the care and cleaning of the equipment. "When you brew into dirty thermals, the coffee will taste burnt," said Klong. That's why the company sends and bills out cleaning supplies to the customer on a regular schedule, to maintain quality consistency and promises kept to the roasting partners. Growth in bean-to-cup brewers For the last 10 years, Klong and Car- bone have been switching custom- ers from liquid coffee to bean-to-cup systems. The two cite reasons such as bean-to-cup is more environ- mentally friendly, there are better margins for operators, it produces a better cup of coffee and the plentiful variety of really good coffee for the bean-to-cup machines. "Most coffee pots need 3 to 4-ounces of ground coffee," said Car- bone. "Artisan roasters are not going to manufacture a 1.5 to 2.5 ounce frac pack." He adds that they aren't going to make a cartridge-style coffee package either. Quality equipment service and third wave roasts aren't the only nontraditional coffee service options Klong and Carbone offer. Some loca- tions have bins of snacks such as chocolate covered cranberries, dried mangos and cashews. Most of the product in this category were items requested by a single location. Once Klong and Carbone added it to one location, they began offering it to all similar locations as an available option. "There's a list of things [food and beverages] that companies like Google are offering their employees. Other tech companies need to offer them as well in order to remain com- petitive," said Klong. 18 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com September 2014 O P E R A T I O N P R O F I L E The Classic Group is the distributor for a number of specialty roasters and supplies the bulk coffee and tea to cafes and grocery stores in the Chicago area. Sales focused The Classic Group hasn't grown by services alone. Klong and Carbone know a good sales staff is imperative. "We aren't just waiting around for the phone to ring," said Carbone. "Good sales people are key. There are other companies 4 or 5 times our size with only 1 or 2 sales people. We have 4, plus Michael and myself." All the Classic Group sales staff are trained baristas as well, but specialize in different areas, such as in restaurants or vending and offce coffee. This means that depending on the location, salespeople will often double up on a meeting. "It's defnitely a team environment," said Klong.