Challenge
- Opening new locations can introduce inconsistencies for coffee shops, given varying staff experience levels.
- Manually pouring milk for iced coffees and espresso drinks is time-consuming and inefficient.
- Plastic bottles used for milk take up storage space and contribute to single-use packaging waste.
Solution
- Flo-Smart’s automated serving profiles ensure consistent volumes of liquid with every pour at Old Spike Roastery.
- It can dispense a serving of iced coffee or milk in under six seconds, significantly reducing preparation time.
- Flo-Smart cuts down significantly on single-use packaging.
Old Spike is one of London’s most prominent coffee chains – and also one of its most impactful. Founded in Peckham in 2015, its goal was to pioneer the UK’s growing specialty coffee movement, and also to offer employment and education opportunities to homeless people.
Put simply, the results have been staggering. In the eleven years since, Old Spike now operates eight locations across London and has mentored over 350 people as they gain employment and transition out of homelessness. As it expands its presence across the capital, the team has used Flo-Smart to standardise its service and improve its environmental footprint.
To learn more about how Old Spike uses Flo-Smart systems, I spoke to Richard Robinson, the company’s CEO. Read on for his insight.
How has Flo-Smart helped Old Spike with its sustainability objectives?
Flo-Smart has significantly helped the Old Spike team with its sustainability goals. Factors like packaging waste are a pressing issue in the coffee industry, and something Old Spike takes very seriously.
“We strive to be as sustainable as possible,” Richard says, “and Flo-Smart offers a great solution to cut down plastic waste.” The team has installed milk kegs with a dispensing line connected directly to Flo-Smart systems, meaning they need fewer plastic bottles for milk.
In its 2024 Impact Report, it reported that this transition has diverted 846 two-litre plastic bottles from waste, constituting 42kg of solid plastic and 87kg of carbon dioxide emissions. It’s a significant saving that bolsters the company’s sustainability credentials while also assisting operationally.
In turn, this also translates to significant cost savings. The money they save on excess packaging and split ingredients can be reinvested into new staff, locations, and training programmes. For a business like Old Spike, which donates 65% of its profits to its self-funded community uplift scheme, higher profit margins mean more funding for good causes.
How else has Flo-Smart helped Old Spike?
The Old Spike team also uses Flo-Smart systems to streamline service, helping staff across its new locations to meet the standards customers expect.
Old Spike constantly opens new locations across London – most recently in 2024, with three new coffee shops – alongside pop-ups in iconic spots like Trafalgar Square. With this continued expansion in mind, it can be difficult to standardise drinks service across locations. Staff will inevitably have different experience levels, and coffee shops will have different traffic levels. To address these operational bottlenecks, Flo-Smart democratises this process.
“When opening new sites, we’re always looking for efficiencies in workflow,” Richard tells me. This is one of the key benefits of Flo-Smart for Old Spike. The system allows them to serve iced coffee in under six seconds, instantly transforming a time-consuming process into a near-instant solution.
That said, Old Spike uses Flo-Smart for more than just iced coffee service. The system is also suitable for dispensing a serving of dairy or plant milk in less than six seconds, ready for baristas to steam and serve. It takes away the time-consuming, manual process of manually pouring milk out of bottles or cartons from an under-counter refrigerator. Instead, Old Spike’s staff just has to select the serving volume on the touchscreen and wait for the liquid to pour.
For a business like Old Spike, with eight locations across London, this kind of speed is vital. With coffee shops in high-traffic areas like Canary Wharf and The Shard, they serve thousands of customers a day. Using Flo-Smart, this workflow becomes a lot more efficient, meaning they can serve more drinks and increase their margins.
Another key benefit for Old Spike’s newer sites is how easy the system is for staff of all experience levels to use. Flo-Smart has an automatic sensor that detects a jug’s volume and dispenses the corresponding amount of liquid, taking guesswork out of the equation. Its one-touch dispensing profile also means no overpouring, less spillage, and no wasted ingredients.
For these reasons, Flo-Smart has become a pillar of Old Spike’s drink service. “For busy sites, it’s a no-brainer,” Richard says. “The team loves it.”
Evidently, the Old Spike team uses Flo-Smart for two key reasons: supporting its market expansion and its sustainability values. It helps staff across locations dispense drinks efficiently and consistently, and it saves money that the team can reinvest into its community programmes.
To get a quote for your own Flo-Smart dispenser, visit our website or get in touch with us directly.
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