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Micro markets provide more sales Another proftable and growing seg- ment for the company is micro mar- kets. Rome Refreshments added its frst one in February of 2014. Now with eight in operation and four more planned, G.P. considers them a good move. "It is a piece of the puzzle that is offce refreshment services, but I wouldn't say it's the end of vending," said G.P. He likes that micro markets bring in more revenue per week, but at the same time the margins are tighter. "Usually vendors want to double the cost price of an item, like in vending, but that's the old way. If you bought the item for $3.50, you can't double it. No consumer will pay $7." Rome Refreshments has success with micro markets at closed, white collar locations with more than 200 employees. In mostly blue collar loca- tions with high turnover rates, G.P. still pushes for vending machines regardless of the number of employees. Water is strong OCS contender Water has been another area of growth for Rome Refreshments, espe- cially since Macerola saw its potential early on. In the early 1990s, Macerola was convinced that reverse osmosis (RO) fltration was the future when other companies were offering just 5-gallon water delivery. When G.P. joined the company, Macerola got him trained in water fltration and G.P. is now certifed and licensed to install the RO units by the State of Texas, which has added a line of repeat sales to Rome Refreshments' bottom line. "A great thing about water is it's a reoccurring rental. You can bank on it every single month," said G.P. Water is a growing part of Rome Refreshments' OCS lineup, but an even greater portion is coffee. The company offers frac pack and single- cup coffee with bean-to-cup systems and prepackaged in the form of pods. They do not offer the cartridge-style single-cup options. "We do encounter resistance with customers inquiring about single-cup," admits G.P. He fnds this is mostly because customers have a specifc brand in the back of their minds. How- ever, the company has been success- fully breaking that stigma for years. "Another thing Dominic brought from his country of origin, Italy, was his love of coffee. He will not drink a bad cup of coffee. And the best cup of single-cup coffee I've tried is bean- to-cup," said G.P. This is part of the reason Rome Refreshments offers these types of brewers. It also keeps a regular maintenance schedule for its bean-to-cup systems. "If they are a regular account, once every two weeks we clean that machine — it's not just a wipe down," explained G.P. He has the driver take out the brew mechanism, the whipping bowls, all of it. On high volume accounts, the equipment is cleaned weekly. Oth- erwise, G.P. fnds the equipment prematurely ages, decreasing life expectancy, and often clogs, requir- ing a service call. "Bean-to-cup machines are more work, but your margins are so much better than [cartridge] single-cup," said G.P. If the customer wants more vari- ety available at a location, Rome Refreshments opts for pods. "Pods taste better," claims G.P. "In a pod, it's coffee in a paper flter, that's it…it is what coffee is supposed to taste like." Rome Refreshments also selects high quality coffee, in either the grade of bean going in or the packaging. The company believes in pods so much, it will drop off a pod machine for the location to try as a single-cup alternative and the pod machine nearly always wins. Breaking the mold of other cof- fee providers has been successful for Rome Refreshments. Coffee ser- vice and water sales make up over 40 percent of the company's annual revenue, equal to vending sales. Rome Refreshments is working with ParLevel Systems to build an OCS module so it can be operated on the same solution as vending, which will make it even more proftable and easy to use. "One screen — one program for all," said. G.P. Houston, TX, presents a unique challenge for a vending operator. Some of Rome Refreshments' driv- ers travel 90 minutes before they reach a location. Therefore, mak- ing more service trips than neces- sary became a drain on resources. Because Rome Refreshments saw the potential of telemetry, they are now reaping the rewards. It has allowed the company to save money, grow other segments and create time for the personal attention at the heart of Dominic Macerola's dream — Rome Refreshments. Profle: Rome Refreshment Services Year Founded: 1979 Headquarters: Houston, Texas Owner: Dominic Macerola Number of employees: 15 Number of routes: 5 Software provider: ParLevel Micro market provider: 3 Square Market Annual sales: Not revealed '' The best cup of single-cup coffee I've tried is bean-to-cup. '' 18 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com April 2015 O P E R A T I O N P R O F I L E