New to Drinks Vending

Motivation – everyone’s cup of tea 27 11 2009 - 11:38:34 AM

Retailers must go ‘full steam ahead in-store as more consumers seek a hot drink during the economic freeze’. So says Stefan Appleby in Retail Express (October 20 - November 2, 2009). The traditional British stereotype, he says, is that in times of crisis we like to comfort ourselves with a nice cuppa.

And that’s just as true in the workplace. When it comes to offering employee benefits, the drinks vending machine is always a positive choice.

Recent research highlights the importance of keeping core benefits in place, even during challenging economic times, in order to keep employees motivated. Of 600 employees surveyed in Great Britain, 81% believe that tea and coffee are a standard provision in the workplace rather than an optional perk.

Drinks machines are the hub of every office. Research by the UK Tea Council shows that 80% of office workers say that they find out more about what's going on at work over a cup of tea than in any other way.

Gone are the days when you keyed in your choice of hot drink by pushing a button marked A1 or C2 and hoped that whatever came out would be drinkable. Today’s hot drinks vending machines serve tea made with a real teabag or ground coffee with the rich aroma of a full roast. It simply can’t be forgotten that there is nothing more gratifying than a refreshing coffee, tea or hot chocolate at regular intervals throughout the day.


There is a wide selection of drinks vending machines to choose from to meet the needs of each individual organisation – whether it’s an attractive worktop machine for visitors to use, or a more functional option for those out of hours areas. What is common though is that there is a need for choice – in machine and drinks range.

So, in these days of the credit crunch, the vending machine proves its popularity time and again. Even in a recession, people want higher quality coffee and tea, but they are reducing their number of visits to expensive high street coffee shops.

By providing the best on-site drinks vending and catering options, employers can keep their employees happy and motivated which, in turn, means they are more likely to go the extra mile for the company and produce top quality work.

Great tasting drinks are essentially an effective way of keeping employees and colleagues happy.

Vending is also a positive option for the environment. Vending machines only heat just enough water needed to make the drinks required. No energy or resources are wasted with overfilling kettles, throwing away un-used water and boiling water that is never used – all things that happen every day with the traditional kettle.

We’re all doing our bit now as individuals at home by recycling everything from paper through to food waste and making an effort to turn off lights and equipment when they are not in use. But when it comes to the workplace, we can often be lazy, thinking that others will look after it.

If employers review the energy efficiency of the equipment they select, they can help to reduce the energy use in the office at any time of day. Energy efficiency ratings should be clearly marked on all electrical appliances and it’s worth office managers taking a few moments to review these. A key element to check is standby mode. Many pieces of technology, right through to television sets, often default to standby mode when users think they have been switched off. In this status, large amounts of energy can continue to be used without anyone being aware. The same applies for vending machines.

Manufacturers of electrical appliances can provide organisations with a huge amount of support in terms of energy saving by factoring in energy efficiency within the very design of their machines.

Reducing energy bills not only saves money, but it also has a major impact on extending the life of our planet’s finite energy sources. And increasingly activities that help our environment are close to the hearts of individuals working within organisations. Knowing that they are helping towards a sustainable future is another strong motivational factor for many employees.

Ensuring that employees have direct access to a wide range of delicious hot drinks throughout the day, using equipment that incorporates both quality and efficient design, can make a huge difference to employees and therefore businesses. In challenging economic times, it makes both commercial and emotional sense to invest wisely in goods and services that motivate and incentivise employees. Even more reason to go full steam ahead with a comforting cup of tea!

The human body comprises 60% water. It’s therefore no surprise that water is an important part of our daily diet. In fact, while an average adult can survive up to three weeks without food, three days is the maximum a healthy adult can survive without food and water together.

By drinking six to eight glasses of water a day you can help your body function properly as well as staying in top condition.

Keeping hydrated is important for a number of reasons. During the working week it’s important to keep drinking water-based drinks as your concentration levels can decrease by 13% and short-term memory by 7% if you get dehydrated.

But you don’t only have to drink water to keep hydrated. Other drinks that are strong hydrators include:

- Water
- Herbal Tea (infusions)
- Fruit Juices

Tea and coffee are diuretics so can lead to dehydration if drunk instead of water. However, there is little harm for the average person in drinking one or two cups of tea or coffee a day for enjoyment.

In fact, research findings published by the British Nutrition Foundation suggest that three cups of tea a day can cut the risk of a heart attack. An additional benefit could also be increasing bone strength. Clinical studies have also shown that natural plant antioxidants found in tea – called polyphenols - have a number of beneficial effects on many biochemical processes in the body. So, moderation in all things could be the key to enjoying a range of drinks.

It’s essential to keep drinking fluids throughout the day as by the time you actually feel thirsty your body has probably already lost between two to five cups of water!

There is a simple test to see if you have enough water in your body. All you have to do is to pinch the back of your hand. If the skin takes some time to fall back into place when you let go of the pinch, you need a top up. Ideally, the pinched skin should quickly snap back into place once released.

Here are some top tips for keeping up your daily water intake:

- Start the day with a cup of hot water with a good squeeze of fresh lemon in it to give your digestive system a real boost.

- Ensure water is constantly available to you throughout the day.

- Create a schedule so you don’t forget! It can be as simple as having one drink with each meal or putting reminders on your phone / computer.

- Select a cup of water as well as your cup of tea or coffee.

- Drink a glass of water before and during each meal.

There are lots of benefits to keeping hydrated too. Drinking water helps to reduce your appetite and is calorie free so it can help you if you’re trying to lose weight. Often a small feeling of hunger can actually be thirst and having a glass of water can stop those hunger pangs.

Keeping water close by can be difficult, but as more people have become aware of the importance of drinking up to two litres a day, many have started buying bottled water. The downside to this is the environmental impact as large amounts of resources are used to extract, package and transport bottled water. However, through ever improving plastic recycling facilities, both waste and energy consumption can be reduced. And this seems to be continuing to improve, as in 2007 35% of plastic bottles were recycled – a 68% increase on the previous year.

An alternative solution to help reduce the environmental impact of keeping up your water consumption is to use water dispensers or vending machines for your daily dose. Drinks vending machines can be found within most offices as well as public places. Cups can then be used again and then recycled in an environmentally friendly way.

And don’t worry about drinking too much in a day. The kidneys of a healthy adult can process fifteen litres of water every day!

Recent research by Inenco has shown that consumers and businesses are cutting back on electricity usage. Demand for electricity is down by an average of 4% compared to 2008. This is partly caused by the current economic climate, but it is also a result of consumers trying to cut energy bills by using fewer electrical items.

It is sensible to reduce costs by turning off lights when not in a room or electrical equipment that is not required, but sometimes that’s not possible in a busy office environment. In business, equipment often needs to be available throughout the day and into the evening, from photocopiers through to the office coffee machine.

When selecting or reviewing office equipment such as drinks vending machines, it is important to check the energy efficiency rating of the machine - including the energy used in standby mode. Not only does this help to reduce energy bills, but also helps in the fight against climate change. 

‘Climate change’ is a term that is now widely used by people around the world and is a topic that is often covered by the media. Some climate change is actually a natural occurrence and the earth has been gradually heating up since the Ice Age over 15,000 years ago.

A large contributing factor to the earth’s surface temperature is the ‘greenhouse effect’. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are gases that form a type of protective blanket around the earth, creating this greenhouse effect by stopping heat from escaping. This is a natural process which for many thousands of years has kept the earth’s temperature at a fairly constant temperature of +15°C rather than the -18°C it would be without it.

So why is climate change and energy efficiency now a concern for us all? Well, up until the industrial revolution about 200 years ago, temperature changes occurred very slowly over long periods of time, allowing for nature to adapt to the new environment.

In more recent years, man-made gases have sped up the rate of emissions impacting the temperature of the earth’s surface much more quickly without giving animal and floral species time to adapt. In August 2003 the UK saw the highest temperatures on record.

So how can we combat climate change?

Over 40% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas to cause climate change, is created by everyday energy use. Simple things such as leaving lights on or overfilling the kettle with water to make a hot drink, not only waste energy but result in needless carbon dioxide emissions.

We can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we produce quite easily by using energy efficient products. All electrical goods should carry information about their energy efficiency. In the drinks vending machine sector, independent testing can be done using the European Vending Association Energy Measurement Test protocol (version 2). This allows potential buyers the chance to assess what drinks vending equipment provides the most cost-effective solution in terms of energy consumption.

As the majority of companies have corporate sustainability goals in place, taking energy efficiency into account when looking at vending solutions can support these goals. Key corporate and social responsibility (CSR) areas of focus include:

- Energy use reduction
- Recycling
- Carbon footprint measurement
- Water use reduction
- Sustainable raw materials.

When considering buying a new hot drinks machine, whether a company has CSR goals in place or not, it is important to note when carbon dioxide emissions are produced in the machine’s lifecycle. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions occur during the ‘use’ stage – almost ten times as much as during the manufacture stage of the drink machine itself.

Ways that hot drinks vending products can reduce energy use through their design include:

- Only heating enough water for a few hot drinks at a time
- Having an energy efficient power saving / standby mode.

In terms of daily tasks such as making a hot drink of tea or coffee, machine design can have a dramatic impact on both energy bills as well as the environment.

To find out more about energy efficient hot drinks machines, visit the Mars Drinks website.

Countries like China and Japan have a long history of tea drinking, in fact, with tea bushes native to China, tea has been a staple there since the fifth century.

The history of tea drinking in the UK starts somewhat later - in the seventeenth century, when tea, coffee and chocolate were exotic new commodities. The first reports of tea drinking in Europe come from missionaries and traders who had penetrated into China in the sixteenth century. In 1559 Ramusio, a Venetian traveller described it as having medicinal properties, good for headaches, stomach ache and pains in the joints.

Tea may have first arrived in Britain at the very beginning of the 1600’s with the increase of imports from Holland, with the Dutch East India Company setting up relationships with China, ahead of its English rival.

From the very beginning of its British history, tea was a high class drink; taken in the houses of the aristocracy from fine china cups and the best tea services. It was popularised by Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II and was quickly adopted by her courtiers. Even Samuel Pepys notes in his famous diary: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”

By the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of tea had reached the coffee houses. It became popular with the middle classes, as much for its taste and health giving properties as a statement of revolt against the extravagancies and immoralities of the aristocracy and the court.

Thus tea was instrumental in shaping a more civilised Europe in the 1600’s with better dietary habits, table manners and social rituals. By 1700 tea imports had reached a sizable 90,000 lb a year and the tea trade was here to stay.

In 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt recognised the need to slash tax on tea imports – tea drinking had permeated through to the lower as well as middle classes and provided a healthy and more readily available alternative to malt liquor. By 1791, the East India Company was importing 15,000,000 lbs of tea into Britain.

Tea taxes continued to play an important role in consumption and the raising of taxes for war chests in the first half of the nineteenth century had a deep impact on the tea import industry. After 1866 there is a re-growth in the industry with prices lowered and tea viewed more as a necessity than a luxury. It is at this point that Britain starts to import leaves not only from China but also India and Ceylon.

The importance of tea as ‘the National drink” is highlighted in Britain during and after the First World War, with food and drink prices rising, the government went to the unusual step of capping the price – recognising its consumption as an essential.

In between World wars, there was a large scale price war between producing countries which resulted in the International Tea Agreement in 1933, which reduced production to 85% of highest output of the proceeding three years.

The Second World War had a much higher impact on tea producing countries and also on the ability of Britain to import food and drink. This resulted in a rationing that lasted well after the war ended and resulted in a reduction in the consumption of tea into the 1950s. In the 1960s, the drinks market became saturated with coffee, soft drinks and wine drinks taking over a large share of the market; tea went into a 30 year decline.

This trend has now been reversed and in the 21st century we are seeing the consumption of tea gaining momentum see Tea Prices Rise as Demand Exceeds Supplies. Whether this is down to taste, variety or the healthy benefits is not clear but we do know that for the British, nothing beats a cup of tea.

To find more about the different types of tea available take a look at the FLAVIA® tea page.

The price of a cup of tea is likely to get more expensive. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the price of tea has already increased by 2.5% in February this year. Poor tea crops as well as the falling value of the pound are to blame for the rising prices.

Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, 4.8% higher than 2007. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), droughts hitting Kenya, Sri Lanka and India, which account for half of the world’s tea exports, are creating a shortfall in production.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates Kenya, Africa’s largest grower of tea, will produce 328 million kg of tea crop this year, which is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. Traders are concerned the tea production gap will get larger causing prices to sky rocket.

The UK, as the second-biggest importer of tea in the world will either have to absorb the higher cost of the raw materials or pass them on to consumers. Factoring in food inflation, which is higher in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, the price of milk and sugar will make the increased price of a cup of tea even worse.

With demand growing, we’ll continue to work with the most popular brands and experienced tea traders around the world to bring you the finest tasting tea selection available  for you to enjoy during your working day.
Click here to find out more about tea (http://www.tea.co.uk/ or http://myflavia.co.uk/drinks/tea/).

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Drink to health and success – the importance of hydration 28 09 2009 - 03:58:07 PM

The human body comprises 60% water. It’s therefore no surprise that water is an important part of our daily diet. In fact, while an average adult can survive up to three weeks without food, three days is the maximum a healthy adult can survive without food and water together.

By drinking six to eight glasses of water a day you can help your body function properly as well as staying in top condition.

Keeping hydrated is important for a number of reasons. During the working week it’s important to keep drinking water-based drinks as your concentration levels can decrease by 13% and short-term memory by 7% if you get dehydrated.

But you don’t only have to drink water to keep hydrated. Other drinks that are strong hydrators include:

- Water
- Herbal Tea (infusions)
- Fruit Juices

Tea and coffee are diuretics so can lead to dehydration if drunk instead of water. However, there is little harm for the average person in drinking one or two cups of tea or coffee a day for enjoyment.

In fact, research findings published by the British Nutrition Foundation suggest that three cups of tea a day can cut the risk of a heart attack. An additional benefit could also be increasing bone strength. Clinical studies have also shown that natural plant antioxidants found in tea – called polyphenols - have a number of beneficial effects on many biochemical processes in the body. So, moderation in all things could be the key to enjoying a range of drinks.

It’s essential to keep drinking fluids throughout the day as by the time you actually feel thirsty your body has probably already lost between two to five cups of water!

There is a simple test to see if you have enough water in your body. All you have to do is to pinch the back of your hand. If the skin takes some time to fall back into place when you let go of the pinch, you need a top up. Ideally, the pinched skin should quickly snap back into place once released.

Here are some top tips for keeping up your daily water intake:

- Start the day with a cup of hot water with a good squeeze of fresh lemon in it to give your digestive system a real boost.

- Ensure water is constantly available to you throughout the day.

- Create a schedule so you don’t forget! It can be as simple as having one drink with each meal or putting reminders on your phone / computer.

- Select a cup of water as well as your cup of tea or coffee.

- Drink a glass of water before and during each meal.

There are lots of benefits to keeping hydrated too. Drinking water helps to reduce your appetite and is calorie free so it can help you if you’re trying to lose weight. Often a small feeling of hunger can actually be thirst and having a glass of water can stop those hunger pangs.

Keeping water close by can be difficult, but as more people have become aware of the importance of drinking up to two litres a day, many have started buying bottled water. The downside to this is the environmental impact as large amounts of resources are used to extract, package and transport bottled water. However, through ever improving plastic recycling facilities, both waste and energy consumption can be reduced. And this seems to be continuing to improve, as in 2007 35% of plastic bottles were recycled – a 68% increase on the previous year.

An alternative solution to help reduce the environmental impact of keeping up your water consumption is to use water dispensers or vending machines for your daily dose. Drinks vending machines can be found within most offices as well as public places. Cups can then be used again and then recycled in an environmentally friendly way.

And don’t worry about drinking too much in a day. The kidneys of a healthy adult can process fifteen litres of water every day!

Recent research by Inenco has shown that consumers and businesses are cutting back on electricity usage. Demand for electricity is down by an average of 4% compared to 2008. This is partly caused by the current economic climate, but it is also a result of consumers trying to cut energy bills by using fewer electrical items.

It is sensible to reduce costs by turning off lights when not in a room or electrical equipment that is not required, but sometimes that’s not possible in a busy office environment. In business, equipment often needs to be available throughout the day and into the evening, from photocopiers through to the office coffee machine.

When selecting or reviewing office equipment such as drinks vending machines, it is important to check the energy efficiency rating of the machine - including the energy used in standby mode. Not only does this help to reduce energy bills, but also helps in the fight against climate change. 

‘Climate change’ is a term that is now widely used by people around the world and is a topic that is often covered by the media. Some climate change is actually a natural occurrence and the earth has been gradually heating up since the Ice Age over 15,000 years ago.

A large contributing factor to the earth’s surface temperature is the ‘greenhouse effect’. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are gases that form a type of protective blanket around the earth, creating this greenhouse effect by stopping heat from escaping. This is a natural process which for many thousands of years has kept the earth’s temperature at a fairly constant temperature of +15°C rather than the -18°C it would be without it.

So why is climate change and energy efficiency now a concern for us all? Well, up until the industrial revolution about 200 years ago, temperature changes occurred very slowly over long periods of time, allowing for nature to adapt to the new environment.

In more recent years, man-made gases have sped up the rate of emissions impacting the temperature of the earth’s surface much more quickly without giving animal and floral species time to adapt. In August 2003 the UK saw the highest temperatures on record.

So how can we combat climate change?

Over 40% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas to cause climate change, is created by everyday energy use. Simple things such as leaving lights on or overfilling the kettle with water to make a hot drink, not only waste energy but result in needless carbon dioxide emissions.

We can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we produce quite easily by using energy efficient products. All electrical goods should carry information about their energy efficiency. In the drinks vending machine sector, independent testing can be done using the European Vending Association Energy Measurement Test protocol (version 2). This allows potential buyers the chance to assess what drinks vending equipment provides the most cost-effective solution in terms of energy consumption.

As the majority of companies have corporate sustainability goals in place, taking energy efficiency into account when looking at vending solutions can support these goals. Key corporate and social responsibility (CSR) areas of focus include:

- Energy use reduction
- Recycling
- Carbon footprint measurement
- Water use reduction
- Sustainable raw materials.

When considering buying a new hot drinks machine, whether a company has CSR goals in place or not, it is important to note when carbon dioxide emissions are produced in the machine’s lifecycle. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions occur during the ‘use’ stage – almost ten times as much as during the manufacture stage of the drink machine itself.

Ways that hot drinks vending products can reduce energy use through their design include:

- Only heating enough water for a few hot drinks at a time
- Having an energy efficient power saving / standby mode.

In terms of daily tasks such as making a hot drink of tea or coffee, machine design can have a dramatic impact on both energy bills as well as the environment.

To find out more about energy efficient hot drinks machines, visit the Mars Drinks website.

Countries like China and Japan have a long history of tea drinking, in fact, with tea bushes native to China, tea has been a staple there since the fifth century.

The history of tea drinking in the UK starts somewhat later - in the seventeenth century, when tea, coffee and chocolate were exotic new commodities. The first reports of tea drinking in Europe come from missionaries and traders who had penetrated into China in the sixteenth century. In 1559 Ramusio, a Venetian traveller described it as having medicinal properties, good for headaches, stomach ache and pains in the joints.

Tea may have first arrived in Britain at the very beginning of the 1600’s with the increase of imports from Holland, with the Dutch East India Company setting up relationships with China, ahead of its English rival.

From the very beginning of its British history, tea was a high class drink; taken in the houses of the aristocracy from fine china cups and the best tea services. It was popularised by Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II and was quickly adopted by her courtiers. Even Samuel Pepys notes in his famous diary: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”

By the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of tea had reached the coffee houses. It became popular with the middle classes, as much for its taste and health giving properties as a statement of revolt against the extravagancies and immoralities of the aristocracy and the court.

Thus tea was instrumental in shaping a more civilised Europe in the 1600’s with better dietary habits, table manners and social rituals. By 1700 tea imports had reached a sizable 90,000 lb a year and the tea trade was here to stay.

In 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt recognised the need to slash tax on tea imports – tea drinking had permeated through to the lower as well as middle classes and provided a healthy and more readily available alternative to malt liquor. By 1791, the East India Company was importing 15,000,000 lbs of tea into Britain.

Tea taxes continued to play an important role in consumption and the raising of taxes for war chests in the first half of the nineteenth century had a deep impact on the tea import industry. After 1866 there is a re-growth in the industry with prices lowered and tea viewed more as a necessity than a luxury. It is at this point that Britain starts to import leaves not only from China but also India and Ceylon.

The importance of tea as ‘the National drink” is highlighted in Britain during and after the First World War, with food and drink prices rising, the government went to the unusual step of capping the price – recognising its consumption as an essential.

In between World wars, there was a large scale price war between producing countries which resulted in the International Tea Agreement in 1933, which reduced production to 85% of highest output of the proceeding three years.

The Second World War had a much higher impact on tea producing countries and also on the ability of Britain to import food and drink. This resulted in a rationing that lasted well after the war ended and resulted in a reduction in the consumption of tea into the 1950s. In the 1960s, the drinks market became saturated with coffee, soft drinks and wine drinks taking over a large share of the market; tea went into a 30 year decline.

This trend has now been reversed and in the 21st century we are seeing the consumption of tea gaining momentum see Tea Prices Rise as Demand Exceeds Supplies. Whether this is down to taste, variety or the healthy benefits is not clear but we do know that for the British, nothing beats a cup of tea.

To find more about the different types of tea available take a look at the FLAVIA® tea page.

The price of a cup of tea is likely to get more expensive. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the price of tea has already increased by 2.5% in February this year. Poor tea crops as well as the falling value of the pound are to blame for the rising prices.

Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, 4.8% higher than 2007. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), droughts hitting Kenya, Sri Lanka and India, which account for half of the world’s tea exports, are creating a shortfall in production.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates Kenya, Africa’s largest grower of tea, will produce 328 million kg of tea crop this year, which is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. Traders are concerned the tea production gap will get larger causing prices to sky rocket.

The UK, as the second-biggest importer of tea in the world will either have to absorb the higher cost of the raw materials or pass them on to consumers. Factoring in food inflation, which is higher in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, the price of milk and sugar will make the increased price of a cup of tea even worse.

With demand growing, we’ll continue to work with the most popular brands and experienced tea traders around the world to bring you the finest tasting tea selection available  for you to enjoy during your working day.
Click here to find out more about tea (http://www.tea.co.uk/ or http://myflavia.co.uk/drinks/tea/).

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Being energy efficient to save money 16 07 2009 - 04:33:41 PM

Recent research by Inenco has shown that consumers and businesses are cutting back on electricity usage. Demand for electricity is down by an average of 4% compared to 2008. This is partly caused by the current economic climate, but it is also a result of consumers trying to cut energy bills by using fewer electrical items.

It is sensible to reduce costs by turning off lights when not in a room or electrical equipment that is not required, but sometimes that’s not possible in a busy office environment. In business, equipment often needs to be available throughout the day and into the evening, from photocopiers through to the office coffee machine.

When selecting or reviewing office equipment such as drinks vending machines, it is important to check the energy efficiency rating of the machine - including the energy used in standby mode. Not only does this help to reduce energy bills, but also helps in the fight against climate change. 

‘Climate change’ is a term that is now widely used by people around the world and is a topic that is often covered by the media. Some climate change is actually a natural occurrence and the earth has been gradually heating up since the Ice Age over 15,000 years ago.

A large contributing factor to the earth’s surface temperature is the ‘greenhouse effect’. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane are gases that form a type of protective blanket around the earth, creating this greenhouse effect by stopping heat from escaping. This is a natural process which for many thousands of years has kept the earth’s temperature at a fairly constant temperature of +15°C rather than the -18°C it would be without it.

So why is climate change and energy efficiency now a concern for us all? Well, up until the industrial revolution about 200 years ago, temperature changes occurred very slowly over long periods of time, allowing for nature to adapt to the new environment.

In more recent years, man-made gases have sped up the rate of emissions impacting the temperature of the earth’s surface much more quickly without giving animal and floral species time to adapt. In August 2003 the UK saw the highest temperatures on record.

So how can we combat climate change?

Over 40% of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas to cause climate change, is created by everyday energy use. Simple things such as leaving lights on or overfilling the kettle with water to make a hot drink, not only waste energy but result in needless carbon dioxide emissions.

We can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we produce quite easily by using energy efficient products. All electrical goods should carry information about their energy efficiency. In the drinks vending machine sector, independent testing can be done using the European Vending Association Energy Measurement Test protocol (version 2). This allows potential buyers the chance to assess what drinks vending equipment provides the most cost-effective solution in terms of energy consumption.

As the majority of companies have corporate sustainability goals in place, taking energy efficiency into account when looking at vending solutions can support these goals. Key corporate and social responsibility (CSR) areas of focus include:

- Energy use reduction
- Recycling
- Carbon footprint measurement
- Water use reduction
- Sustainable raw materials.

When considering buying a new hot drinks machine, whether a company has CSR goals in place or not, it is important to note when carbon dioxide emissions are produced in the machine’s lifecycle. The majority of carbon dioxide emissions occur during the ‘use’ stage – almost ten times as much as during the manufacture stage of the drink machine itself.

Ways that hot drinks vending products can reduce energy use through their design include:

- Only heating enough water for a few hot drinks at a time
- Having an energy efficient power saving / standby mode.

In terms of daily tasks such as making a hot drink of tea or coffee, machine design can have a dramatic impact on both energy bills as well as the environment.

To find out more about energy efficient hot drinks machines, visit the Mars Drinks website.

Countries like China and Japan have a long history of tea drinking, in fact, with tea bushes native to China, tea has been a staple there since the fifth century.

The history of tea drinking in the UK starts somewhat later - in the seventeenth century, when tea, coffee and chocolate were exotic new commodities. The first reports of tea drinking in Europe come from missionaries and traders who had penetrated into China in the sixteenth century. In 1559 Ramusio, a Venetian traveller described it as having medicinal properties, good for headaches, stomach ache and pains in the joints.

Tea may have first arrived in Britain at the very beginning of the 1600’s with the increase of imports from Holland, with the Dutch East India Company setting up relationships with China, ahead of its English rival.

From the very beginning of its British history, tea was a high class drink; taken in the houses of the aristocracy from fine china cups and the best tea services. It was popularised by Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II and was quickly adopted by her courtiers. Even Samuel Pepys notes in his famous diary: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”

By the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of tea had reached the coffee houses. It became popular with the middle classes, as much for its taste and health giving properties as a statement of revolt against the extravagancies and immoralities of the aristocracy and the court.

Thus tea was instrumental in shaping a more civilised Europe in the 1600’s with better dietary habits, table manners and social rituals. By 1700 tea imports had reached a sizable 90,000 lb a year and the tea trade was here to stay.

In 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt recognised the need to slash tax on tea imports – tea drinking had permeated through to the lower as well as middle classes and provided a healthy and more readily available alternative to malt liquor. By 1791, the East India Company was importing 15,000,000 lbs of tea into Britain.

Tea taxes continued to play an important role in consumption and the raising of taxes for war chests in the first half of the nineteenth century had a deep impact on the tea import industry. After 1866 there is a re-growth in the industry with prices lowered and tea viewed more as a necessity than a luxury. It is at this point that Britain starts to import leaves not only from China but also India and Ceylon.

The importance of tea as ‘the National drink” is highlighted in Britain during and after the First World War, with food and drink prices rising, the government went to the unusual step of capping the price – recognising its consumption as an essential.

In between World wars, there was a large scale price war between producing countries which resulted in the International Tea Agreement in 1933, which reduced production to 85% of highest output of the proceeding three years.

The Second World War had a much higher impact on tea producing countries and also on the ability of Britain to import food and drink. This resulted in a rationing that lasted well after the war ended and resulted in a reduction in the consumption of tea into the 1950s. In the 1960s, the drinks market became saturated with coffee, soft drinks and wine drinks taking over a large share of the market; tea went into a 30 year decline.

This trend has now been reversed and in the 21st century we are seeing the consumption of tea gaining momentum see Tea Prices Rise as Demand Exceeds Supplies. Whether this is down to taste, variety or the healthy benefits is not clear but we do know that for the British, nothing beats a cup of tea.

To find more about the different types of tea available take a look at the FLAVIA® tea page.

The price of a cup of tea is likely to get more expensive. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the price of tea has already increased by 2.5% in February this year. Poor tea crops as well as the falling value of the pound are to blame for the rising prices.

Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, 4.8% higher than 2007. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), droughts hitting Kenya, Sri Lanka and India, which account for half of the world’s tea exports, are creating a shortfall in production.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates Kenya, Africa’s largest grower of tea, will produce 328 million kg of tea crop this year, which is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. Traders are concerned the tea production gap will get larger causing prices to sky rocket.

The UK, as the second-biggest importer of tea in the world will either have to absorb the higher cost of the raw materials or pass them on to consumers. Factoring in food inflation, which is higher in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, the price of milk and sugar will make the increased price of a cup of tea even worse.

With demand growing, we’ll continue to work with the most popular brands and experienced tea traders around the world to bring you the finest tasting tea selection available  for you to enjoy during your working day.
Click here to find out more about tea (http://www.tea.co.uk/ or http://myflavia.co.uk/drinks/tea/).

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Tea – an interesting history 01 06 2009 - 05:55:25 PM

Countries like China and Japan have a long history of tea drinking, in fact, with tea bushes native to China, tea has been a staple there since the fifth century.

The history of tea drinking in the UK starts somewhat later - in the seventeenth century, when tea, coffee and chocolate were exotic new commodities. The first reports of tea drinking in Europe come from missionaries and traders who had penetrated into China in the sixteenth century. In 1559 Ramusio, a Venetian traveller described it as having medicinal properties, good for headaches, stomach ache and pains in the joints.

Tea may have first arrived in Britain at the very beginning of the 1600’s with the increase of imports from Holland, with the Dutch East India Company setting up relationships with China, ahead of its English rival.

From the very beginning of its British history, tea was a high class drink; taken in the houses of the aristocracy from fine china cups and the best tea services. It was popularised by Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of Charles II and was quickly adopted by her courtiers. Even Samuel Pepys notes in his famous diary: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”

By the end of the seventeenth century, the popularity of tea had reached the coffee houses. It became popular with the middle classes, as much for its taste and health giving properties as a statement of revolt against the extravagancies and immoralities of the aristocracy and the court.

Thus tea was instrumental in shaping a more civilised Europe in the 1600’s with better dietary habits, table manners and social rituals. By 1700 tea imports had reached a sizable 90,000 lb a year and the tea trade was here to stay.

In 1784, Prime Minister William Pitt recognised the need to slash tax on tea imports – tea drinking had permeated through to the lower as well as middle classes and provided a healthy and more readily available alternative to malt liquor. By 1791, the East India Company was importing 15,000,000 lbs of tea into Britain.

Tea taxes continued to play an important role in consumption and the raising of taxes for war chests in the first half of the nineteenth century had a deep impact on the tea import industry. After 1866 there is a re-growth in the industry with prices lowered and tea viewed more as a necessity than a luxury. It is at this point that Britain starts to import leaves not only from China but also India and Ceylon.

The importance of tea as ‘the National drink” is highlighted in Britain during and after the First World War, with food and drink prices rising, the government went to the unusual step of capping the price – recognising its consumption as an essential.

In between World wars, there was a large scale price war between producing countries which resulted in the International Tea Agreement in 1933, which reduced production to 85% of highest output of the proceeding three years.

The Second World War had a much higher impact on tea producing countries and also on the ability of Britain to import food and drink. This resulted in a rationing that lasted well after the war ended and resulted in a reduction in the consumption of tea into the 1950s. In the 1960s, the drinks market became saturated with coffee, soft drinks and wine drinks taking over a large share of the market; tea went into a 30 year decline.

This trend has now been reversed and in the 21st century we are seeing the consumption of tea gaining momentum see Tea Prices Rise as Demand Exceeds Supplies. Whether this is down to taste, variety or the healthy benefits is not clear but we do know that for the British, nothing beats a cup of tea.

To find more about the different types of tea available take a look at the FLAVIA® tea page.

The price of a cup of tea is likely to get more expensive. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the price of tea has already increased by 2.5% in February this year. Poor tea crops as well as the falling value of the pound are to blame for the rising prices.

Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, 4.8% higher than 2007. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), droughts hitting Kenya, Sri Lanka and India, which account for half of the world’s tea exports, are creating a shortfall in production.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates Kenya, Africa’s largest grower of tea, will produce 328 million kg of tea crop this year, which is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. Traders are concerned the tea production gap will get larger causing prices to sky rocket.

The UK, as the second-biggest importer of tea in the world will either have to absorb the higher cost of the raw materials or pass them on to consumers. Factoring in food inflation, which is higher in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, the price of milk and sugar will make the increased price of a cup of tea even worse.

With demand growing, we’ll continue to work with the most popular brands and experienced tea traders around the world to bring you the finest tasting tea selection available  for you to enjoy during your working day.
Click here to find out more about tea (http://www.tea.co.uk/ or http://myflavia.co.uk/drinks/tea/).

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Tea price rises as tea demand exceeds supply 15 04 2009 - 03:48:13 PM

The price of a cup of tea is likely to get more expensive. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics show the price of tea has already increased by 2.5% in February this year. Poor tea crops as well as the falling value of the pound are to blame for the rising prices.

Tea consumption reached 3.85m tonnes last year, 4.8% higher than 2007. However, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), droughts hitting Kenya, Sri Lanka and India, which account for half of the world’s tea exports, are creating a shortfall in production.

The Tea Board of Kenya estimates Kenya, Africa’s largest grower of tea, will produce 328 million kg of tea crop this year, which is well below the 345 million kg produced last year. Traders are concerned the tea production gap will get larger causing prices to sky rocket.

The UK, as the second-biggest importer of tea in the world will either have to absorb the higher cost of the raw materials or pass them on to consumers. Factoring in food inflation, which is higher in Britain than anywhere else in Europe, the price of milk and sugar will make the increased price of a cup of tea even worse.

With demand growing, we’ll continue to work with the most popular brands and experienced tea traders around the world to bring you the finest tasting tea selection available  for you to enjoy during your working day.
Click here to find out more about tea (http://www.tea.co.uk/ or http://myflavia.co.uk/drinks/tea/).

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Coffee consumption rises and so do coffee bean prices 27 03 2009 - 05:27:00 PM

Did you know that coffee is one of the most traded products in the world after oil? In the UK alone we drink 70 million cups of coffee per day – that’s a lot of beans. In fact using a standard FLAVIA coffee drink, such as our Smooth Roast as a measure, that would be well over 4 billion coffee beans* per day.

Defying the rest of the financial market, coffee prices continue to rise, with Tanzanian beans climbing as much as 12% in one week for a top AA grade Arabica (Bloomberg). The independence of the coffee market from the rest of the commodities market, or indeed the equity market, is due to two factors.
Firstly, the price is dependant not only on weather but on the infrastructure and stability of the country of origin and secondly, it is dependant on demand.

Whilst these two factors interact to move prices around, it seems that the increasing current demand is pushing prices to an extreme high.

And far from cutting down on our global coffee intake, we are starting to drink more. With an increasing variety of coffee drinks on the market, catering to a wider range of tastes, coffee has become fashionable as well as functional. In addition, coffee consumption is no longer limited to wealthier nations. The growing consumerism in the developing world is pushing up demand for meat-based diets and this is likely to spill over into coffee consumption (Financial Times 20th March).

So, whilst coffee defies the rest of the market place, with prices soaring instead of falling, we will keep on buying it and bringing it to you, using only the freshest and finest ingredients available.

To find out more about coffee and its origins take a look at Source. Seal. Serve.

*On average a FLAVIA coffee drink contains 58 carefully roasted and ground coffee beans, all sealed in to preserve freshness and flavour.

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

Mars Drinks Christmas and New Year Opening Times 01 12 2008 - 03:35:50 PM

It’s December already and, in order to help your festive period run as smoothly as possible, we wanted to reassure you that Mars Drinks will still be offering the same high level of customer service and technical support to all of our drinks vending customers.

For our Customer Services opening hours please take a look at our Holiday Schedule which outlines our opening times from the 22nd December 2008 to 2nd January 2009.

You will also find our 2008 Delivery Schedules and Office Hours summary chart on this page which shows your last day to order to ensure a timely delivery of KLIX® and FLAVIA® drinks.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 0870 600 20 30.

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

TEAM TALK Stephanie Robinson - Customer Service Adviser 21 11 2008 - 05:20:56 PM

Q: What’s your favourite KLIX or FLAVIA drinks choice?
A: Douwe Egberts white with sugar

Q: What made you decide to join Mars Drinks?
A: I started as a temp and loved it. I was delighted when they asked me to join as an Associate. The people and career opportunities are great and there are free drinks of course!

Q: How would colleagues describe you?
A: I think they would say I was friendly, bubbly and always willing to help out. My boss Mel says that I’m her second in command.

Q: What is a typical day like?
A: It’s always very busy and the day goes quickly. I alternate between taking calls on the Customer Services phone line and answering emails. No one day is ever the same and the variety of calls that we get – from drinks orders to new customer enquiries - is amazing.

Q: Why did you decide to work in Customer Services?
A: I worked in Customer Services in my last job and I love working on the telephone. I have a natural talent for working with customers, it’s great to get positive feedback and be able to deliver solutions that meet customer needs.

Q: What makes Mars Drinks such a special place to work?
A: The company takes notice of what you think, there’s opportunity to move through Mars Drinks and progress. You are encouraged to go for what you want; you certainly don’t have to move out of the company to get promotion.

Q: How do you switch off at the end of a busy shift?
A: I walk my dog – Bruce, a long haired Jack Russell. We usually walk for about one and a half hours which really relaxes me at the end of a busy shift.

Q: What do you like best about working at Mars Drinks?
A: The people. There is a great rapport; everyone here is willing to help each other.

Q: What’s your proudest achievement?
A: Definitely when I became a Mars Drinks Associate. Also I loved helping out in another team when their leader was away – it was incredibly motivating to be given that responsibility.

Q: Pub grub or fancy restaurant?
A: I am more of a restaurant person, but not a fancy restaurant. Indian is a firm favourite – popadums and chutney – nothing beats it.

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

FLAVIA® Environmental Calculator 13 11 2008 - 11:01:32 AM

Energy saving has been top of the news agenda for the past few months with Envirowise advising businesses to use energy wisely and the Energy Saving Trust  stating that 50% of us would be greener if we had more time. With so many businesses wanting to be greener, we need to make it quicker and easier for them to make considered environmental choices.

At Mars Drinks we work with you to help you make good green choices, which will not only impact your business positively but the environment too. As one of our latest “Thirsty for Change” initiatives we have launched the FLAVIA Environmental Calculator.

This clever tool allows you to input the number of employees on your site and select your main drinks provision, from kettle to floor standing drinks vending machine. It will then calculate how much energy you could save by switching to the energy efficient FLAVIA® Creation 400™, over a five year period. It will also show you how much money you could save by switching to an energy efficient hot drinks machine. This is just one example of how we are trying to make it easier for you to make informed decisions for your business.

To find out more about how our hot drinks systems will enable you to have a more sustainable workplace check out “Your Workplace”.

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1

The tea bag taskforce is targeting your office kettle 04 11 2008 - 04:02:19 PM

“Brew as you are told!” is the headline in the Daily Mail today. Citing Envirowise – which is funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural affairs – the Mail quotes:

“Appoint a tea task force or tea monitor to make sure all your hot drink-making facilities are as efficient as they could be. Only boil the water you are going to use – this will avoid water and energy being wasted, and won’t leave you standing at the kettle waiting for it to boil unnecessarily.”

Whilst Government advice is timely and wise, this is something that we at Mars Drinks have been focussing on for some time. We think that the most efficient way of brewing hot drinks and saving energy in the process is to make sure the equipment you use is up to the performance. To that end, our FLAVIA® Creation 400™ is a clear winner in the energy conservation race, only heating enough water for each cup one drink at a time. And not to be outdone, the KLIX Outlook is 12.5% more energy efficient for hot drinks than the average two leading floor-standing drinks vending machines tested*.

So, whilst we always applaud energy saving initiatives and encourage businesses to do the same, we think that expecting an office to set up a tea task force is going a bit too far, particularly during these tough economic times.

*Testing carried out by an independent energy testing facility using the EMP Protocol V1.1