Challenge
- Drinks service at events like the Melbourne Marathon needs to be quick and consistent.
- Long queues for iced coffee or matcha can lead to lost sales.
- Companies like ST. ALi have a global reputation for excellent coffee and uncompromising quality.
Solution
- Flo-Smart uses automatic serving profiles to ensure each serving is the same size and quality as the last.
- The system can dispense a serving of cold brew or matcha in under six seconds, cutting down service time.
- This level of speed and efficiency helps businesses maintain their reputation for high-quality service and drinks.
ST. ALi is one of Australia’s most respected specialty coffee businesses. Founded in 2005 in Melbourne as a single coffee shop and warehouse, it now has locations across South East Asia and a robust online store.
Another pillar of ST. ALi’s business is its presence at live events, setting up pop-up stalls to serve cold brew, matcha, and other drinks to attendees. In October 2025, ST. ALi served drinks at the Melbourne Marathon, using Flo-Smart to dispense concentrates and milk.
To learn more about how the ST. ALi team has benefited from using Flo-Smart systems, I spoke to Lachlan Ward, the company’s CEO. Read on for his insight.
How does the ST. ALi team use Flo-Smart equipment?
ST. ALi primarily uses Flo-Smart dispensers to serve drinks at high-volume events and expos. Most recently, it served drinks at the Melbourne Marathon, where it also launched its new collagen RTD cold brew in collaboration with Pillar Performance.
“We mainly use Flo-Smart for brand activation events,” Lachlan tells me. “We normally use it for dispensing both ST. ALi cold brew and our matcha concentrate.”
Flo-Smart is well-suited to this because it can handle a range of drinks. In one system, you can dispense anything from cold brew to matcha or cocktails. It also has a multi-tap system, meaning you can dispense different liquids simultaneously to manage multiple menu items at once.
This was especially beneficial for the ST. ALi team at the Melbourne Marathon as they served numerous drinks from the same system. For instance, they could use one of Flo-Smart’s taps to dispense cold brew concentrate, and the other to dispense milk into the same cup. The result is efficient, fresh cold drinks without needing to manually make each one.
This was particularly important for ST. ALi when catering at busy events with high footfall. Without equipment that can quickly and efficiently dispense drinks, it can lead to long queues and lost sales.
“Flo-Smart was perfect for high-volume events like the Melbourne Marathon, where speed of service and ease of use are crucial,” Lachlan explains.
The system excels in these environments because it can dispense a serving of liquid in under six seconds. Compared to the time-consuming process of making iced coffee, cold brew, or iced matcha lattes by hand, you can serve a lot more customers without compromising on quality.
The other benefits of Flo-Smart for ST. ALi
Since ST. ALi handles drinks service for a number of public-facing events – such as Australian Fashion Week, the Australian Grand Prix, and the aforementioned Melbourne Marathon – convenience is vital. The team needs systems that are easy to install for pop-ups and short-term use, but are just as intuitive and adaptable.
“The main advantage of Flo-Smart is that it’s portable and easy to set up,” Lachlan tells me. The system connects to industry-standard bladders and dispensing lines, meaning you can serve drinks as they’re chilled for the optimal consumer experience. Flo-Smart systems are also available as bespoke portable rigs, allowing you to host the system and necessary refrigerators within one turnkey solution.
The equipment’s digital dosing technology is another benefit for ST. ALi when serving drinks at events. When serving so many customers in one day, any inconsistencies – whether through inconsistent serving sizes, spillages, or overpours – equate to wasted ingredients, lost sales, or negative customer experiences.
With Flo-Smart, the ST. ALi team could program dispensing volumes before the event, meaning all staff needed to do was select the relevant dispensing profile on the touchscreen. “Accurate dosing for every drink really helps to minimise wastage,” Lachlan says. “It’s also easy for staff to use, with minimal training required.”
For brands like ST. ALi in particular, this consistency matters. As one of Australia’s longest-standing specialty coffee institutions, it has a reputation for quality in not just its coffee shops, but its pop-ups as well. Flo-Smart helps them to uphold this by dosing each portion automatically, meaning the quality of its coffee and matcha concentrates can shine through.
It also means the team can easily adjust to ongoing changes in coffee shop culture, such as the rise of matcha. It has become a staple as consumers look for alternatives to traditional coffee, so having a system that can dispense iced matcha as well as iced coffee is important for staying ahead of these developments.
In conclusion, the ST. ALi team benefitted greatly from using a Flo-Smart system at its pop-up at the 2025 Melbourne Marathon. It allowed the team to serve a range of drinks quickly and easily – but most importantly, it didn’t compromise on the consistency and quality that is so integral to the company’s identity.
To get a quote for your own Flo-Smart dispenser, visit our website or get in touch with us directly.
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