Manufacturers are increasingly positioning the consumer at the centre of their value propositions. Eversys explains how its new Shotmaster Pro is catering to this need by creating a business in a box.
Choice is in the hands of consumers like never before. No longer are manufacturers offering cookie-cutter models of cars, clothes, phones, or golf clubs. Products are increasingly customised to fit the consumer’s needs and wants, from colour and material down to personalised engravings.
Eversys recognised the value in customisation long ago and has made its mark with a range of modularised super automatic machines to suit the different needs of the market. This includes the Cameo machine for the specialty market and the Enigma range for high throughput venues, both in Classic and Super Traditional designs. Now, the Swiss manufacturer has launched the Shotmaster Pro in what Eversys Group Commercial Director Kamal Bengougam says is, quite simply, a “coffee factory”.
“We wanted to create a machine that was like two e’4s compressed into 84 centimetres and call it a Shotmaster,” Bengougam says. “I was with Thorsten [Schindler, Eversys’ Product Management Director] back in 2013 when he told me to watch how people in cafés made a coffee. What I saw, was a barista that poured the extracted coffee into a shot glass, frothed the milk and mixed it into a cup, a bit like a cocktail maker does. Thorsten said, ‘I want to integrate all the skills of the barista into a coffee machine’, so we did.”
The final step in the evolution of the Shotmaster was an integrated milk system, which Bengougam and Schindler had discussed for the past six years. With this final touch, Eversys unveiled the Shotmaster Pro on 16 April 2021, in a virtual presentation at the London Coffee Festival.
The manufacturer presented a Super Traditional model comprising two Shotmaster units integrated either side of the milk module. It can hold up to four different dairy or plant-based milks to customise orders.
“Instead of producing just two espressos at once, with the Shotmaster Pro you can make eight shots at any one time in limited space but with optimum productivity. Imagine — you can make 350 shots of espresso on either side, so that’s 700 in total per hour and in the middle is this milk factory. You’re basically catering for a method of service and a functionality of space. The Shotmaster is the creation fit for that ecosystem.”
In the video launch, 2017 World Barista Champion Dale Harris was invited to test the capability of the Shotmaster. On first look, Harris said, “I can’t compete with this”. In a further test of productivity, Eversys conducted a Man vs Machine competition to test the output of the Shotmaster Pro against a World Barista Champion. Bengougam says the machine won hands down, utilising four grinders with four different beans, producing eight shots at once, and the option to choose from four different milks. Game over.
“If you tried to create the equivalent on a traditional machine you’d be wearing roller skates to get from one end of the machine to the other,” Bengougam says.
The design of the Shotmaster features the use of different metals to give a sense of “robustness and elegance”, with a ‘moustache grille’ inspired by 1950s Italian car designs.
While the appearance and method of service of the Shotmaster Pro is a point of difference in the Eversys range, what is constant is the technology used and desire to produce a quality coffee in every cup.
“Quality is constant in absolutely everything we do,” Bengougam says. “The external features and modules of our machines may change to suit our customers’ needs, but the internal components and advanced technology – the DNA of Eversys – is continuous no matter which machine you buy.”
In making the right selection, Eversys invites customers to share information about their environment, budget, functionality, staff capacity, and machine positioning. It then provides them with options and designs a solution to work within the allocated space.
“We rethink and customise the space so that it is fit for purpose. If a machine is going to be positioned against the back wall, then you don’t need a Super Traditional machine because you won’t see the rear design. Use a Classic instead,” Bengougam says. “Sometimes you will need an E4 or E4m, sometimes you’ll need a Shotmaster, and sometimes you’ll need an Enigma. It purely depends on your environment.”
Having such a flexible approach to customer needs is what Bengougam says has held the company in good stead during a year that tested its resilience as a result of the global pandemic.
“We knew we couldn’t control what happened out there. What we could control was the decision to inflict change in spite of the environment we live in,” he says.
“Last year, Eversys grew its sales by 25 per cent, not because we were pandemic proof, but because of the choices we made. We decided to grow. We chose to live, adapt, and embrace change as a result of the pandemic and not fight it. It’s this decision that gave us the opportunity to experience dynamic growth as opposed to plain organic growth and move forward at pace.”
The world is now emerging from a dark period of transition and lockdown. Bengougam says it is the customer with a short decision-making process who will win in this ‘new climate’ as opposed to those that take a long time to inflict change.
Already, Bengougam is seeing interest for the Shotmaster in the United States with large chains keen to make quick choices and invest in this “disruptive piece of equipment”.
“I don’t think we’ll go back to the old normal. I think we will go forward, and the narrative is now open, ready to be written,” he says.
“What I think we’ll see is emerging trends and families spending more time cooking higher quality food at home, making the home, once again, the heart of the house. In the food service market, I think coffee shops have a bright future and greater chance of survival than restaurants because of their position at the heart of the community as opposed to just being a place to eat at.”
For those considering opening a coffee shop, rent and labour costs will be the two largest expenses. Smaller venues will mean reduced rent and fewer staff will cut labour costs. The solution, Bengougam says, is modular “coffee factory” units like the Shotmaster that deliver consistency, choice, productivity, and quality.
“We basically give you a business in a box. Let the machine do all the work while you spend more time interacting with your customers,” he says. “The days of going into a coffee shop and seeing four to six baristas around the bar, delivering food and cleaning tables, is gone. It has become a thing of the past.”
In Switzerland, there’s a shop called ViCAFE where customers come to a hole-in-the-wall window, grab a coffee, and go. In Canada, Dark Horse Coffee Automat has opened a contactless, autonomous ATM-type café that withdraws coffee instead of cash, and in Germany, Tank and Rast has just launched 400 vending stations with Cameo machines inside.
“We’re transforming café spaces with Eversys machines and turning coffee boxes into an ecosystem. Coffee shop owners have to analyse the market and their customers and ask: what do they want? Do they want a self-service ecosystem or a served ecosystem? Once you know, you can customise the space,” Bengougam says.
“Instead of a cookie-cutter approach where everything becomes standardised, we’re moving into a realm where people will exercise their misery of choice. Developing a unique value proposition, real differentiation, will become key to success rather than being a mere marketing motto.”
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