NEW YORK— Sunbeam Hospitality is launching a new one-cup coffeemaker system at the IH/M&RS this week. The new model PTC13 Single-Cup Mr. Coffee Coffeemaker will be shown at the Jarden Consumer Solutions booth, the parent of Sunbeam Hospitality.
The PTC13 brews fresh coffee, one cup at a time. The machine can brew eight to 10 ounces in about two-and-a-half minutes and as there is no carafe, breakage is not a concern. The system is easy to clean and easy to use and works with either ground coffee or pre-packaged coffee packs, according to the company.
“The Mr. Coffee PTC13 is positioned to serve a wide range of the hospitality market,” said Tom Trent, director of sales and marketing for Sunbeam Hospitality. “It was designed to reduce equipment and labor costs of the hotelier while maintaining a high degree of flexibility” in terms of the coffee used, he said.
“It boasts a very small footprint and a design geared towards simplicity,” Trent added.
The new single-cup coffeemakers on the market require consumer education, according to Trent. “I have been focusing on the evolving single-cup phenomenon from a household and retail perspective for almost two years and I believe there are many advantages for the product in a hospitality setting. However, consumers’ willingness to change a ‘ritual’ like coffee drinking may take some time before it is widely accepted,” he said.
Trent added that “a hotel is a tough place to educate the consumer” about a new product. Guests who don’t understand how to use a single-cup coffeemaker may result in a significant amount of calls to the front desk for assistance, he noted. “The most important thing is to have a brewer that is completely intuitive,” he said.
Trent noted that while the pod-type coffeemakers are now “the big thing,” they can be expensive for hoteliers. “The cost for the brewer will be $30 to $40 while the cost of the coffee will go from pennies a cup to a quarter a cup,” he said.
