Bravilor and Vendon – Enhancing Coffee Businesses Together

• Reliable and trustful partner for Vendon

• Serving HoReCa industry operators in the UK

• Business needs: remote machine monitoring and complete control of their cleanliness, technical status and ingredient consumption

• Vendon solutions: Cleaning report, Component usage and Consumption tracking, Sales overview report

Bravilor Limited has been a valued and trustful Vendon partner for many years. Bravilor Ltd. is the UK operation of Bravilor Bonamat, a renowned manufacturer of coffee machines and hot water dispensers, which has built a reputation for providing reliable and innovative solutions in the hospitality, catering, and office sectors since its establishment in 1948. As a family-owned business, Bravilor has grown from a catering and restaurant equipment wholesaler to a specialist producer with a global presence and ambitious aspirations.  

Their extensive range of coffee machines, including filter coffee machines, espresso machines, and bean-to-cup machines, caters to businesses of all sizes, from small offices to large-scale catering operations. Bravilor’s machines are renowned for their user-friendly interfaces, durability, and consistent brewing quality.   

We sat down with Terry Green, the Technical Manager at Bravilor Ltd., and Justin Brown, the Managing Director at Bravilor Ltd., to talk about the benefits telemetry has brought into their daily lives, the challenges faced before, and their vision for seamless integration of telemetry solutions and products into their operations.  

The effects of telemetry  

Firstly, we were eager to hear how the Bravilor team uses telemetry in daily operations and what improvements have been made by using Vendon products and solutions.

“Telemetry systems have always been highly valued from a technical standpoint. They provide us with a valuable tool for tracking essential tasks such as cleaning and machine maintenance, among others. This capability has proven to be instrumental in enhancing our overall operations and efficiency,” says Justin.   

Clean coffee machines are the key for a cup of coffee to have a consistent taste and quality, especially in public sites with high customer traffic. Vendon telemetry solutions keep an eye on machines, tracking and following up the cleaning processes with instant real-time data. And it turns out that reliable data from cleaning reports have been a major improvement for Bravilor-monitored sites after implementing Vendon telemetry. “We have a restaurant chain with roughly 90 sites and all of them have Vendon vBox2 attached to them for machine monitoring and data collecting. The cleaning efficiency has improved remarkably,” says Justin with visible joy. He also admits with a laugh that some sites were not very happy with being watched in the beginning. “Nevertheless, there have been minimal problems given the large rollout and number of machines and it is all down to the fact that now we can see the machines live. And we are very satisfied.”  

Vendon telemetry empowers operators with information about when and for how long a machine is cleaned and allows for enforcing proper maintenance practices with customers. This extends the machine’s lifetime, reduces operator maintenance visits, and ensures good drink quality, which, eventually, leads to more satisfied customers and higher revenue.  

Another noticeable improvement Bravilor partners mark is the precise sales data, which gives a full understanding of how much coffee should match the demand, and allows planning the ordering and delivery of coffee beans accordingly. “Now the restaurants have an understanding of how much coffee they should be ordering and utilizing”, says Terry. “Also they see how much coffee they are making and how much they are selling. There is no excess product and they can pursue better management of inventory.”   

Truly, reliable sales and inventory data can be crucial in business as no extra resources are spent or lost in guesswork or loss of the product. “It is quite a large amount of money that can be saved.”, adds Terry. ”If you are selling 100 cups of coffee that equates to, say, 1 kg beans, they want to be sure that it is the actual amount used, not 2 kg, which in the end can sum up to large costs.”  

With reliable data, operators are enabled to compare the quantity of beans delivered to the location with the actual ingredient consumption and spot inconsistencies easily. With Vendon’s solution in place, it is easy to track if the product order matches the sales results of the machines on site.  

The importance of daily monitoring

While the primary goal after implementing telemetry for Bravilor was to have the option to see machines live and grasp full control of the cleaning processes of the coffee machines, they are glad to share other benefits that have brought more success to their business.   

One of the best examples they have had is with a hotel chain where also Vendon telemetry was applied to coffee machines and afterward not a single callout happened for an on-site visit as the machines ran smoothly and with no issues. “It is all because of the regularly generated report we did for them every Monday to show the cleaning status of machines. The option to receive real-time data live and see the machine status instantly allowed them to react accordingly and pursue any necessary operations on the machines before larger issues occurred”, Terry recalls. “And certainly, the heightened awareness of the site is a major benefit for the operator.”   

Continuing to discuss the benefits of live monitoring, Bravilor partners also note that it is a good selling point for offering their services to potential clients – the examples they provide are often pivotal in proving the efficiency of their services that are provided with Vendon telemetry. “Having this option has helped us to get some commercial deals, whereas other companies couldn’t. Besides, investments in telemetry certainly pay off afterward when we have minimal call-out costs.”  

The partnership that benefits all

In its pursuit of excellence, Bravilor has recognized the value of telemetry solutions in streamlining its daily operations. The implementation of telemetry systems has allowed them to track crucial aspects such as cleaning and servicing, providing valuable insights and enhancing their overall efficiency.   

Besides, Bravilor is set to develop a tighter partnership with Vendon introducing also payment technologies for their clients. While Bravilor has gradually shifted away from directly supplying payment devices, they still recognize the significant commercial value of having payment devices seamlessly integrated into their systems.

With the stage set for a new chapter in their customer story, Bravilor sought to explore alternatives and find a partner who could provide both reliable telemetry and payment solutions along with good customer service. “Well, Vendon in this matter is superior, in my opinion”, says Justin. “And we are very much looking forward to discussing payment integration as well.”  

Bravilor and Vendon’s partnership is one of those collaborations that push forward in developing new and more advanced features. Their drive to become better for their clients inspire our team to elevate Vendon products and solutions to match the demand and become even better as well. “The clarity you provide, the service, and precise audits are such bonuses”, says Justin. “It gives us strength and power, and truly makes all the difference in our daily work.” 

Vendon is lucky to have such loyal and dedicated customers who are always ready to share their feedback and experience. And Bravilor is surely one of those we can rely on. 

To learn more about how Vendon can help advance your business, reach out to us at grow@vendon.net or your local Vendon Distributor.