Hugh Millson, (left) and N&W’s Warren Morris, pictured recently at the AVS conference
N&W Introduces ‘Krea’; and Hugh Millson tastes a winner…
Hugh Millson wasn’t any place quite as exotic as the road to Damascus when he had his own particular moment of revelation. In fact, at the time, he was walking through the workshop, deep in the bowels of Millsons Vending’s headquarters in Tonbridge, Kent.
‘The lads had the new Necta Krea set up on the bench and it just so happened that I fancied a cup of coffee’, Hugh said. At which point, you need to know the back story…
Warren Morris is a familiar face in the vending fraternity. There’s rarely a trade show where you won’t find him on the N&W stand, dispensing bonhomie, cappuccino and expert advice in equal measure; and he is uniquely qualified to bring us up to speed. ‘To be truthful, Hugh isn’t N&W’s biggest fan’, Warren acknowledged, through gritted teeth. ‘To give him his due, though, he knows what he likes and he says it how he sees it, so you always know where you stand with him.
‘Having said that, I’ve got to know him and his business quite well over the years and even before the Krea arrived in the UK, I was sure that it was the ideal match for the specific requirements of quite a few of Hugh’s customers.’
Graciously, Hugh declines to refer to it as ‘pestering’, choosing instead to call Warren’s refusal to take ‘no’ for an answer ‘persistence.’ Be that as it may, Hugh had finally agreed to take a Krea on trial; and here it was, set up on the bench, ready to dispense.
The Krea is so compact
‘I admit it, I wasn’t expecting much’, Hugh said. ‘The Krea is so compact you could almost believe it wasn’t even a real machine, just a toy one.’ He was in for a shock. ‘Quite frankly I was astounded’, he said. ‘It didn’t seem possible that an automatic machine could deliver espresso based drinks of that quality, let alone one that took up so little space, was so simple to refill and to maintain and was so competitively priced.’
‘Quite frankly I was astounded. It didn’t seem possible that an automatic machine could deliver espresso based drinks of that quality, let alone one that took up so little space, was so simple to refill and to maintain and was so competitively priced.’ Hugh Millson.
‘On the spur of the moment I decided that it was only fair to ring Warren’, Hugh said. ‘As customers, we’ll pick up the phone and yell at our suppliers the minute something goes wrong, but we don’t pick up the phone quite so quickly when our expectations are exceeded.
‘I’d say that Krea is most definitely ‘best in class’’
‘I’ve been in this business for thirty odd years, but I’m not a technician. Warren often blinds me with science when a new brewer or grinder or some other innovation has been introduced by N&W, but a lot of the science goes over my head. To be truthful, I don’t know what it is that N&W has done to come up with a machine at this price that can dispense coffee of this standard and is so easy to maintain, but the proof is in the tasting and whatever it was they did, they got it right. At the price, I’d say that Krea is most definitely ‘best in class’.’
Having received the boss’s unambiguous seal of approval, Millson Vending’s new Krea was duly installed at the premises of a valued customer. Hugh awaited their feedback with interest.
‘They didn’t want to give it back’, he laughed. ‘They really did have a bit of a grumble when we told them that, unfortunately, we’d promised ‘their’ Krea to another customer that was keen to try it out.’ There was, of course, a simple solution to the problem. ‘I just got on the phone to Warren and told him we needed another Krea, soon as…’
Krea: ‘the ideal solution for hotels’.
N&W has positioned Krea as ‘the ideal solution for hotels, communities, and self-service locations’, and no wonder: the modern, elegant design is enhanced by LED lights and chrome-plated push-buttons. A smart chrome frame surrounds the selection area and elegant side graphic panels complete the package. And, by the way, the coffee machine of choice for Novotel Porte d’Italie – PV’s pied a terre throughout Vending Paris ? Yep, a Krea. Well two, actually.
‘In my opinion’, Hugh concluded, ‘customers would be quite happy to pay a couple of pounds for coffee that good.’ And it is pretty good. As reported exclusively elsewhere on Planet Vending, a chap called Fredrik just won a coffee competition in Sweden, using a Krea.
Meanwhile, back at the N&W ranch, Warren concludes the story. ‘Obviously, it comes as no surprise to me that Hugh was impressed with his Krea coffee’, he said, ‘but I was surprised when he came on the phone and admitted as much! Necta machines are designed by Italians to deliver an authentic Italian coffee experience. That’s what makes our machines unique in UK vending and that’s how vending can deliver the high-quality coffee break experience that people have come to demand.’
*Krea, the latest addition to Necta’s award-winning K Range, is now available in the UK, from N&W. While stocks last, that is…
