Costa serves it hot with self-serve machine at Dubai airport

Dubai: Costa Coffee hopes to brew a strong growth strategy through its new self-serve coffee machine, the Marlow 200. A unit was installed at the Dubai International Airport on Monday.

“As the current world leader in self-serve espresso bars, we have a responsibility to be innovative,” Scott Martin, managing director of Costa Express said. “The Marlow 200 will now enable us to offer great espresso drinks of outstanding quality to customers in new markets.”

A sum of £1.5 million has been invested in developing the project, which has also seen about £10 million worth of innovation, Martin added.

By introducing the Marlow 200, Costa hopes to appeal to all five senses desired by the inveterate coffee lover — sight, smell, taste, touch and sound. The machine has been developed in tandem with tech majors such as Intel and Microsoft, apart from tapping inputs from Italian design house Pininfarina. It is equipped with a 27-inch HD touchscreen that fuses Intel and Microsoft technology with a user interface created by gaming specialists Atomhawk.

Furthermore, the Marlow 200 is also equipped with a camera that enables it to identify a consumer as male or female and place him/her in an age group, thus rendering it able to modify interface options according to the demographic.

Developed over a period of a year, the machine takes on a modular feel similar to an aircraft’s, according to Tim Cox, machine integration manager at Costa Express. This makes it easier to service with a maximum of “five minutes downtime,” Cox said.

“The Marlow 200 is now in full-scale production and we look forward to introducing more of these innovative machines across the UAE,” said Andrew Day, Group CEO of Maritime Mercantile International (MMI) and Emirates Leisure Retail. Costa has 3,000 machines in operation since the launch of Costa Express in the UK. The company is looking at opening its 100th store shortly in the UAE.