An in-house barista cafe from Coffee on Cue starts from $680 per barista-day, fully managed with the machine and every asset, plus coffee from $2.00 a cup, all ex GST. The per-cup rate runs from $2.00 to $2.20 depending on how many cups your floor drinks a day, and you decide how much of each cup to subsidise.
Your final figure depends on the hours, the number of baristas and the setup. Here is what shapes it, and what it replaces.
What the investment covers
Every model we run includes the same service. The difference between models is only who covers the cup. The service itself is:
- A barista, or a crew of them, dedicated to your office
- A La Marzocco machine, installed and maintained by us
- Our house blend plus rotating single origins, with alternative milks
- A menu built around your team, with cold drinks and catering options
- A dedicated account manager and monthly usage reporting
There is no capex and nothing to buy. The equipment is ours, servicing and calibration run on our schedule, and it all comes on one invoice at the end of each month, payable within 14 days.
What you provide is the space and the services to it: power to spec, water and drainage, storage, refrigeration and dishwashing. If your site needs electrical or plumbing work, that sits with your builder, and we can recommend trades.
What drives the number
Four things move it more than anything else:
- Service hours. How many hours a day the bar is open, and on which days.
- Barista numbers. This depends on your headcount, your peak times and how the space is laid out. We confirm it with you, then right-size it during the pilot.
- The setup. A cart-based bar needs no construction. A custom integrated bar is designed and fitted to your space.
- The menu. Food through our catering partners, cold drinks and specific milks or roasters all shape it.
Three ways to fund it
The part most workplaces spend the longest on is the subsidy.
Fully subsidised. You cover the service and every cup is free to your team. It is the simplest experience for your people. JLL runs its bar at 101 Collins Street this way.
Partially subsidised. Your people pay a small amount per cup and you cover the rest. This is our most popular model, because it keeps a real price signal without the full cafe price. Toyota Finance runs a flat one-dollar menu. Co-payments collected through the point of sale are deducted from your monthly invoice.
Minimum revenue. You agree a minimum revenue per barista hour and pay the difference only if the till falls short, with coffee credits when it beats the target.
A useful rule of thumb: subsidise coffee by half, and about half the floor takes part. How much of the floor you want at the bar is a better starting question than how little you can spend.
What it replaces
Most offices already spend something on coffee, just in less visible ways. Subsidised in-office coffee typically lands at one to four dollars a cup. Pod machines run three to five dollars a cup, with inconsistent quality and single-use waste. Cafe vouchers run five to eight dollars and send people out of the building.
That last line is the one worth measuring. JLL estimates its bar saves roughly 5 FTE a year in time people would otherwise spend leaving the building for coffee. That is JLL's own estimate for its own floor, and yours will differ, but it is the right kind of number to put in a business case. If you are weighing whether a workplace needs to offer coffee at all, we covered what Australian workplaces are actually required to provide.
Getting a number for your floor
Because the variables are specific, so is the quote. Tell us your headcount, your busy days and the space you have, and we will build a proposal your stakeholders can sign off. Then the pilot, four to ten weeks with no lock-in, shows what your team actually uses before any longer commitment. If an in-house barista cafe is on the table for your office in Melbourne or Sydney, that is where to start.
