How Much Coffee Does a Car Dealership Need?

Who drinks the coffee in a car dealership?

Three groups, and they behave differently. Sales customers are offered a drink as they sit down, so count one per visit. Service and MOT customers who wait on site are there for an hour or more, so count two. The team — sales executives, service advisers, reception — drink much as office staff do, at around two cups per person per working day.

Those three counts give a daily cup figure, and everything else follows from it: the weekly coffee order, the case size and the machine class. The method is the same one we use for salons and barbershops, where the customer drink is also part of the visit.

How many cups a day does a dealership pour?

The table shows three typical sites. Replace the counts with your own footfall — your DMS or service diary will give you the appointment numbers.

Site	Sales visits a day	Service customers waiting	Staff	Cups a day	Cups a week
Independent used-car showroom	15	0	4	23	138
Franchised dealership with service department	20	15	10	70	420
Large multi-franchise site	50	40	25	180	1,080

Assumptions: one drink per sales visit, two per waiting service customer, two cups per staff member per working day, six trading days a week. Full take-up is assumed as a planning rule — not every customer says yes, so trim the figure after a month of real usage.

How much coffee a week, and which case size?

A bean-to-cup machine uses about 8g of beans per cup, so a kilo makes around 125 cups. Divide the weekly cups by 125 and you have the kilos a week. Under about 1.5kg a week, order 1kg bags; between 1.5kg and 3kg, a 6kg case; at 3kg and over, a 12kg case is the better buy per kilo.

Site	Cups a week	Beans a week	Order size	Coffee cost a week
Independent used-car showroom	138	1.1kg	1kg bags, about one a week	£25.34
Franchised dealership with service department	420	3.4kg	12kg case every 3 to 4 weeks	£63.28
Large multi-franchise site	1,080	8.6kg	12kg case every 1 to 2 weeks	£162.72

Working: cups a week ÷ 125 = kg a week (138 ÷ 125 = 1.10kg; 420 ÷ 125 = 3.36kg; 1,080 ÷ 125 = 8.64kg). Weeks per case = case size ÷ kg a week (12 ÷ 3.36 = 3.6 weeks; 12 ÷ 8.64 = 1.4 weeks). Cost a week uses Caffè Italiano beans at £22.95 per 1kg bag (18.4p a cup) and £226.00 per 12kg case (15.1p a cup), prices checked 9 November 2026, no VAT on coffee. Milk, cups and sugar are extra.

Redber roasts trade coffee to order in Guildford, so a 12kg case arriving every three or four weeks is still fresh when the last bag is opened. Browse the 12kg case range to compare blends at the same case price.

Which bean-to-cup machine fits a showroom?

Match the machine to your cups a day, then leave headroom: if your figure sits within about a quarter of a machine's rated daily output, go up a class. Showroom customers expect cappuccinos and lattes, so a milk system matters more here than in a back office. The ratings below are the manufacturers' recommended daily outputs as shown on each product page.

Machine	Rated daily output	Milk	Suits
Bravilor SPRSO	Up to 30 cups	Optional external milk cooler	Sales desk or small showroom under 23 cups a day; 215mm wide
Bravilor SEGO 12L	Up to 60 cups	Integrated fresh milk	Showroom or waiting room up to about 45 cups a day
Jura X10c (plumbed)	Up to 100 cups	Fresh milk, fine foam	Franchised dealership at 70 cups a day; mains water, no refilling
Gaggia G300	Up to 200 cups	Powdered milk	Large site, or one of two machines across showroom and service lounge

Headroom rule: SPRSO 30 × 0.75 = 22 cups, SEGO 12L 60 × 0.75 = 45, X10c 100 × 0.75 = 75, G300 200 × 0.75 = 150. At 180 cups a day the large site is better served by two machines — the showroom and the service waiting area are usually separate rooms anyway.

All four check out online on the wholesale store. See the full bean-to-cup range, and if you would like the machine installed and the team shown how to use it, that is covered on our installation and training page.

What does a customer drink cost in coffee?

At 8g a cup, the coffee in a customer's drink costs between 15p and 18p depending on the size you buy. A 1kg bag at £22.95 works out at 18.4p a cup; a 12kg case at £226.00 is £18.83 a kilo, or 15.1p a cup. For the franchised dealership that is the difference between £77.11 and £63.28 a week on the same 420 cups. Put your own numbers into the cost-per-cup calculator to see the figure for your blend and dose.

Decaf, tea and hot chocolate for the waiting area

Service customers are often in early and some will want something other than coffee. A one-in-ten planning share works for decaf: at 420 cups a week that is 42 decaf drinks, about 336g of beans, so a 1kg bag of decaf beans lasts around three weeks. A bean-to-cup machine with a single hopper needs the decaf pre-ground and dosed by hand, so many sites pair the machine with a hot water tap, tea bags and a tin of hot chocolate instead. Children waiting with a parent are the usual hot chocolate drinkers.

Coffee for car dealerships: FAQs

How many cups of coffee does a car dealership use a day?

Count one drink per sales visit, two per customer waiting for a service and two per member of staff. A franchised dealership with a service department typically lands between 60 and 80 cups a day on that method.

What size coffee order does a car showroom need?

Divide weekly cups by 125 to get kilos of beans a week. Under 1.5kg a week order 1kg bags, 1.5kg to 3kg a 6kg case, and 3kg or more a 12kg case.

Which coffee machine is best for a car showroom?

A bean-to-cup machine with a fresh milk system, rated for at least a third more cups than you expect to pour each day. Showroom customers expect lattes and cappuccinos, so a black-coffee-only machine rarely suits the front of house.

How much does a customer's coffee cost a dealership?

Between 15p and 18p in beans at 8g a cup, depending on whether you buy 1kg bags or 12kg cases. Milk, cups and sugar are on top.

Does a dealership need a separate machine for the service department?

Once a site passes about 150 cups a day, or when the service waiting area is in a different room from the showroom, two smaller machines are usually more practical than one large one.