When Eversys first launched in the United States (US) and a salesperson approached Metropolis Coffee Company CEO Anne Djerai with a proposition to work together, she was strong in her response.

“I said, ‘no way will Metropolis work with a super automatic company. Never.’ The salesperson explained that Eversys described its machines as ‘Super Traditional’ and listed what it did, but I didn’t care. I said we would never use it,” Djerai recalls.

“Then for the first time I went to a competitor account to try the coffee and it was so good. The barista said: ‘Yes, it’s [because of] the machine.’ I looked at it, and it was an Eversys.”

When Djerai finally got her hands on an Eversys machine, she was automatically convinced, but company Owner Tony Dreyfuss needed a little more persuasion. When he asked Djerai which traditional coffee machine they should use for the roaster’s second flagship café at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport Terminal 5, she said “neither”, and suggested a four-group Eversys Shotmaster instead.

“I’d put an Eversys machine on the counter any day of the week, and now it is a showpiece on our T5 café benchtop,” Djerai says.

She says it helps that the model mirrors the design of a traditional espresso machine, a criterion she believes Eversys has understood well, but it’s also been a decision based on volume and labour needs, considering the country’s staff restraints and training challenges.

Post-COVID, Djerai says the bar has been raised for specialty coffee thanks to more consumers engaging with brewing methods, perfecting their coffee experience at home, and subsequently driving retail sales. What’s been a saviour for Metropolis Coffee Company, however, is the introduction of Eversys machines to balance quality and volume.

“Because of Eversys we don’t have to compromise,” Djerai says. “As roasters, we do so much to keep specialty coffee intact, not only in the supply chain and sourcing, but the product itself. We don’t roast dark for this reason. We are so particular about maintaining the integrity of the bean that it wasn’t an option to go outside of the standards we were doing.”

As such, Metropolis Coffee Company uses Eversys Enigma, Cameo, and Shotmaster machines to suit its different levels of volume and customer requirements. For the past 20 years, Metropolis Coffee Company has predominantly been a wholesale and distribution business, but organically it’s moved into private label operations for brands throughout the US, and business has “exploded” according to Djerai.

Of all the coffee machine brands the company distributes, Eversys is its biggest equipment partner. It sells machines to large US restaurant groups, one of which is set for further expansion into France and the United Kingdom.

But increasingly, Djerai says the company’s “street cred” in the specialty coffee sector is having strong persuasive powers. “If we say something’s good, it’s good. We’ve converted a lot of people to Eversys, and it’s growing,” she says.

Traditionally in the US, Djerai says specialty and commodity coffee have been viewed as two separate industries. Tradeshows such as the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) have been solely dedicated to convenience services, embracing commodity coffees and superautomatic machines, while the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) Specialty Coffee Expo would never have a super automatic in sight. But times have changed, and the two sectors are merging.

“Now the Specialty Coffee Expo is run by robots, and people are excited about it,” Djerai says.

“It’s people like Karalynn McDermott [Eversys Vice President of Business Development] who have helped raised the bar and driven that innovation. Now you actually see specialty coffee companies at NAMA, and for the first time, there’s no barrier anymore.”

Eversys North America Commercial Director Harrison Piperato agrees. He says the specialty coffee scene in the US has changed drastically over the past five years, and has witnessed a renewed focus on people, efficiency, and customisability, and a drive towards cold coffee beverages.

“Demand creates growth,” Piperato says. “Specialty has become something that’s demanded everywhere.”

The standard for quality is also being upheld through large US roasters. At the recent Specialty Coffee Expo in April, McDermott recalls meeting one of Metropolis Coffee Company’s clients at the Eversys booth. The company had been using traditional equipment and expressed its operational challenges as a result of the US employment crisis.

“The owner didn’t want only one person to be able to use the espresso machine. It’s not a luxury anymore. What if that person wasn’t available? Instead, he wanted to easily cross train anyone on a variety of intuitive equipment who could simply come into the role and make great coffee,” McDermott says.

“One hotel operator even told me they had 10 people that didn’t show for their shift on a Saturday. But you know what? The show must go on.”

At this year’s SCA Expo, McDermott says many customers cited the ongoing challenges around staff hiring and training, but like Metropolis Coffee Company has discovered, more customers see Eversys as the solution.

“A roaster partner in Nebraska selected our equipment, and the account manager questioned how they were going to manage all the training. Eight months later when I visited, they couldn’t believe the shot accuracy, and that’s because the machine grind adjusts automatically via the Extraction Time Control (ETC) function, just like a barista would,” McDermott says.

Djerai says she could praise Everys’ ETC feature all day, noting each shot is just as consistent, if not better, than the last. However, it’s the self-cleaning functionality that has been a gamechanger for her, in addition to the machine’s customisability, and adaptability to house fresh milk.

“There’s a powder option if you choose, but the idea that you can have multiple milks or dairy alternative options coming out of the same group head or separate ones, and use the 2-Step [traditional steam arm] to texture your milk, is fantastic. It’s made perfect every time, and it’s good for cost savings. There’s no mess. You’re not wasting anything,” Djerai says.

“There are no bad shots. I don’t think [Eversys is] capable of pulling a bad shot unless you skip the cleaning cycle a million times. Even with milk, if your settings are correct, you will never throw away scorched milk. A big amount of waste comes from do-overs. Because the machine is doing the same thing each time, you can manage your costs better and understand the volumes you’ll go through. Traditionally, if you had somebody on your staff who was really weak on milk texturing or not great at dialling in, you might spend 30 minutes with them in the morning, dialling in the grinder to get a desired extraction, or practising their texturing. But with Eversys, you don’t have to do that.”

Thanks to Eversys’ telemetry feature, customers also have the transparency to view the performance of their machines and hold specific venues and individuals to account.

“I love it when a client looks at their stats [via telemetry] and is so proud to get 99.5 per cent cleaning compliance. You may think it doesn’t make a difference, but it makes a huge difference,” McDermott says.

“It also takes pressure off the roasting team so they’re not always asking ‘have you cleaned? Have you cleaned?’ The ability of a quality assessment representative to view stats remotely on cleaning, then look at outliers to see if everyone is compliant, or if one person or store isn’t and needs to be brought up to speed, is so insightful.”

Equally, the use of remote telemetry has transformed the way sales reps and technicians respond to machine issues. Post-COVID, McDermott says a technician uses the tools available to view equipment remotely before attending a call-out in person.

The machine’s modular approach means it doesn’t matter how much experience a technician has, servicing via a swap-out swap-in modular method keeps operation flowing efficiency without costly down times.

“Here in the US we have a major tech shortage. The module system is therefore way easier to service,” Djerai says. “When we sell Eversys equipment, we sell it like a program, and promote it like buying a car with planned maintenance. We don’t want to see our customers wait until the busiest day of the year to call for tech support and say they should have had earlier maintenance on their brew chamber. We would much rather promote a planned preventative maintenance schedule.”

Djerai joined Metropolis Coffee Company in 2019 to manage strategic partnerships and high-level sales, and was appointed CEO in 2022. She has been a strong advocate for the company’s partnership with Eversys from day one.

When COVID-19 hit the US in March 2020, Djerai says the company lost a large chunk of its business due to a substantial drop in its office coffee segment, and because of stringent COVID-19 mandates for restaurants and cafés. The brand had been stagnating in the years prior to the pandemic and took time pandemic lockdown to refresh. What followed, was a renewed drive to utilise its good reputation. It refocused on being a brand that creates solutions within the context of specialty coffee, for niche private label wholesale customers, and other roasters. As such, Metropolis Coffee Company is now available in more than 400 stores and clubs, 1500 wholesale and distribution accounts, and private labels for some of the best roasters in the US.

“There’s a real buzz about us now. You’ll see Metropolis everywhere. We’re synonymous with Chicago coffee. We’re a Chicago brand, but it’s a brand that lends itself to being a national one,” she says. “And innovation is always a driving force.” 

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This article was first published in the July/August 2024 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.