Office Barista is part of Ratio Brand Distribution, a third-generation family business, operating in Belfast since 1967, Dublin since 1975 and Glasgow since 2014. We provide over 7 million drinks and 1.6 million snacks annually to happy customers across the UK and Ireland.
STARTING OUT
Our business was founded by AEW Steen in 1967. The original company name was Service Sales, reflecting the dedication to customer service that is still a core value of the business today.
After qualifying as a charted accountant with ICI, John Steen joined Service Sales in 1976. In the early days the business focused strongly on cigarette vending, hot drinks and contract catering.
FOCUSING ON VENDING
As hot drinks vending became more popular with businesses, the vending side of the business grew rapidly. Eventually the decision was taken to specialise in this area.
The business became a steady supplier to a number of large Belfast employers such as Michelin, Belfast Ropeworks and Harland and Wolff.
GROWTH AND EXPANSION
In the early 1980s in-cup hot drinks vending became an increasingly large and important market. Recognising an opportunity, the company created its own packing plant.
The competitive pricing that this enabled provided another period of rapid growth for Service Sales.
In 1988 the company was approached by Four Square UK (now Lavazza Professional) and became the exclusive distributor of the KLIX system in Ireland. The strength and reliability of KLIX technology and an exclusive branded drinks range further strengthened the in-cup offering and contributed to the expansion of the fully-managed vending services in Belfast and Dublin.
LEADING THE WAY IN SINGLE-SERVING COFFEE
In the early 1990s Mars Drinks ( Now Lavazza Professional ) created a new hot drinks system, Dimension 3. The core of the system was an innovative freshpack technology which allowed the perfect preservation and brewing of delicious roast and ground coffee and fresh leaf tea.
Dimension 3 evolved into the Flavia coffee machine range, still one of our most popular hot drinks machine ranges with our customers. The ability to provide fresh roast and ground coffee and real leaf tea from Flavia drinks brands such as Lavazza coffee and Taylors of Harrogate, in the workplace proved extremely popular and the turnover of the Flavia coffee and tea machine business grew rapidly.
BEAN TO CUP COFFEE MACHINES
In 2008 Ratio entered the growing bean to cup market which opened up opportunities in the hospitality and catering markets. Italy's favourite Lavazza coffee was added to round out the range and proved extremely popular and is still our best selling coffee beans.
We now offer bean to cup coffee machines from Bravilor Bonamat, CoffeeTek, and N&W
EFFICIENCY THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
In 2011 the company began working with Vendman Systems, an integrated accounts and management system. Exploiting Vendman technology provided rapid efficiency gains within the business, reducing overheads whilst providing detailed management information to guarantee that key customer service standards were met.
OFFICE BARISTA
The single serve coffee machine market continued to grow, and there is still a clear trend towards machines that serve high quality, freshly ground coffee and real leaf teas, so in 2014 Office Barista was created to distinguish itself from the vending machine market and cater specifically to businesses who need high quality office coffee machines but do not require a full vending solution. Our customer's coffee cup is our passion and Office Barista has helped us intensely focus on this.
As part of the wider Ratio family and the WISE Vending Group, Office Barista highly benefits from economies of scale, supplier relationships and sophisticated management systems. Together with a new Glasgow office, opened in 2014, these factors allow Office Barista to provide the very best coffee pod and bean to cup machines at the best prices on the market, right across the UK and Ireland.
Ratio continues to flourish and to successfully provide wholesale and managed vending services to a broad customer base.
KEURIG
Keurig is the best selling coffee pod machine in North America and Office Barista was delighted to start offering it, also in 2014.
Office Barista were an authorised Keurig UK distributor and were the sole distributor for Keurig Ireland.
THE FUTURE
Our past is important but we are extremely excited about what is in store for the future as our business continues grow and we actively pursue the business practices, technology and equipment that will enable us to remain fully committed to giving our customers the best products and service in the business in the UK and Ireland.
