Luxurious milkshake brand f’real is celebrating a milestone with the installation of its 900th machine in the convenience sector.
Every day a new retailer in the UK becomes a f’real stockist, installing one of the self-serve milkshake, smoothie and frappe machines and experiencing a fantastic boom in sales as a result.
With many out-of-home outlets closed in 2020 because of lockdown restrictions, dairy drink shoppers have turned to retail, with take home sales of dairy drinks up 8.4% in the past year .
Made with real ice cream and with the option to customise the thickness of the shake in-store, the blend-it-yourself frozen beverage has taken the UK by storm since launching in 2015.
A recent survey found that 55% of consumers visit their local convenience store just to get their hands on a f’real , making it a top destination product. There is also a repeat rate of over 75% showcasing that once customers have had one, they are likely to keep coming back.
Emma Wood, head of F’real EME at brand owner Rich Products, said: “We’re over the moon to have installed our 900th convenience store machine in the UK, and it’s only the beginning. We have lots of exciting plans in the pipeline, including NPD so that convenience retailers can offer their customers even more choice.
“Sales and new installations of f’real have remained strong during the past few months and our data shows that milkshake is seen as a year-round drinks offer, unaffected by the sea-sons or weather. Shoppers have been looking to their local independent retailers for a take home or an on-the-go treat, and f’real, with its premium, restaurant-quality, is ideally placed to meet this demand. Unique in the market, it also offers a real point of difference for a store.”
f’real stocklist, Emily Rosa Ranjini, owner of Costcutter Stamford, says: “We recently expanded our Stamford site, which is our busiest store. Thanks to the success of f’real machines in our other stores, especially during the summer months, we decided to install another, and it has proved a huge footfall driver. Customers come to the store to purchase a milkshake and pick up other items at the same time, which is brilliant for business.
“We were also very impressed with the support from the f’real team – we have other drinks machines in store which took a few weeks to be installed, but the f’real machine was set up within a week of our order.”
Source: f’real
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