How automation is giving Merlo greater cold drink control

Merlo Coffee is bringing automated cold beverage dispensing to cafés looking to manage the fast-growing demand for iced drinks.

Few environments put hospitality technology under greater pressure than a major sporting event. At the BMW Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane in November 2025, thousands of spectators moved through hospitality areas across the course, demanding quick, consistent drinks service at scale.

For Merlo Coffee, the event became a proving ground for a new piece of equipment now entering the Australian market: the FloSmart automated dispensing system, which the Brisbane roaster is beginning to distribute nationally to wholesale partners.

Rather than relying on manual preparation during peak periods, Merlo integrated the FloSmart unit into its event setup to streamline iced beverage service. Using Merlo’s own coffee concentrate, the system was capable of producing up to 12 drinks in 60 seconds – roughly one every six seconds – with consistent dosing every time.

The economics were equally compelling, with drinks costing around $0.85 per cup in concentrate, while the simplified workflow allowed operators to run the station with ease.

Beyond the fairways, that same equation is becoming increasingly relevant inside cafés.

It’s something Merlo Chief Operating Officer David Holt is seeing firsthand across the roaster’s own 16 locations, and among the hundreds of cafés it supplies to.

He says there’s little doubt that cold drinks are a priority of the next generation of coffee drinkers. Recent figures show 74 per cent of all orders at Starbucks are now cold beverages; almost half of coffee drinkers under 25 had a cold drink yesterday; and ready-to-drink and cold brew coffee formats are set to outpace traditional coffee formats in growth by 2031.

“At our university sites – we’ve got three or four of them – the cold drink offering is huge. There’re iced teas, iced matcha, slushies, and a lot of menu variation,” he says.

“But as menus expand into cold beverages, workflows become more complex. In peak environments, from brunch, late nights to pop-up events, consistency and speed directly impact margin.”

David says Merlo works hard to be more than a coffee supplier for its wholesale partners. That means supplying them with high-quality equipment too.

“Our focus has always been quality and service. Using FloSmart allowed us to maintain both while improving speed and cost control in a demanding event environment,” David says.

“Automated dispensing also helps to reduce ingredient waste, free up staff for upsell and ultimately deliver a better guest experience.”

Merlo currently has two FloSmart machines in market: one at its James Street café that doubles as its training facility, and another it is loaning to potential customers.

In addition to the immediate reduction in staff overheads, it also improves the physical management of the space they’re working in.

David notes cold drink making can be multi-faceted, which can disrupt the flow of service.

“Take something like an espresso martini. Normally you’d have to measure all the ingredients, mix them, and prepare the drink. With this system, you just press a button, place the glass, and hand it over. So speed of service is a major benefit,” he says.

“Consistency is a major selling point, because everything is pre-measured. You’re doing the work beforehand, and the whole container is consistent for every single drink.”

The simplicity of the design also means almost anyone can operate it. Merlo has seen the benefits at other sporting grounds that take cold drinks out to customers, rather than serving them at a bar.

“The unit is refrigerated, so you only require power to run it – that portability is a huge plus,” he says.

“There’s also a bit of theatre to it. It’s something different, and you can have multiple taps running different drinks. You can change them up week to week.”

But ultimately the big advantage is speed and simplicity – elements that can reduced staff overheads.

As a roaster, Merlo isn’t immune to the crunch of rising green bean prices, with those costs being passed on to wholesale customers – everyone in the industry is dealing with it.

David says automation forms part of the solution.

“We want our wholesale partners to succeed just as much as our retail cafés,” he says. “So wherever we can introduce automation while still maintaining quality, that’s really key to our business.

“We’re passionate about being more than just a coffee supplier for our wholesale partners. That means supplying them with high-quality equipment like carts and a full suite of product offerings – and that now includes FloSmart.” 

Merlo’s new coffee concentrate

Alongside the rollout of FloSmart, Merlo Coffee has introduced a new coffee concentrate designed to deliver espresso-level quality in high-volume service environments.

Developed under the guidance of Merlo Founder Dean Merlo, the team has worked painstakingly to bring it to market – driven by a focus on flavour and extraction quality. The result, the company says, is a product that mirrors the profile of freshly brewed espresso.

To test the outcome, Merlo conducted blind tastings comparing drinks made from the concentrate with an iced latte prepared on a traditional espresso machine. According to the team, participants were unable to distinguish between the two. The concentrate is produced using a full espresso extraction method rather than immersion or funnel-style techniques commonly used in other concentrates, ensuring the coffee retains the body, balance and aromatics expected in a café setting.

When paired with automated dispensing systems such as FloSmart, the concentrate allows cafés to pre-set milk ratios and beverage recipes, enabling consistent iced coffees and milk-based drinks without requiring a trained barista for every serve. For operators navigating labour pressures and expanding cold drink menus, it provides a potential way to maintain quality while significantly simplifying workflow.

For more information, visit merlo.com.au