LEON has become the go-to stop for anyone looking for a lunch that tastes great, is served fast and is good for you. Exceptional quality and consistency at a fast pace is at the core of what LEON does, and this ethos extends to its coffee.

“Whether it’s our food or our coffee, we have the highest quality standards,” explains Andrea Bulgarelli, head barista at LEON. “Consistency plays a major role in these standards, alongside the speed of our service and the quality of our products. When it came to coffee, we needed a solution that meant every cup of coffee we served is as delicious as the last – however busy a site gets.”

LEON used a mix of traditional espresso and automatic bean-to-cup machines across its range of sites. But, after recent trip to Switzerland it became clear that one machine had everything the chain needed.

“We already had an Eversys machine at one of our sites. We knew it could make incredible coffee, but we didn’t feel we were getting the most out of it.

An invitation to Switzerland to meet Eversys’ founder Jean-Paul In-Albon and the team gave us the opportunity to work together to find ways to make its machines deliver on all of our standards.

Not only did the team find a solution to everything we needed in terms of consistency and high productivity, it was a real highlight for us to meet Jean-Paul. He’s not just an engineer, he’s interested and invested in coffee styles and quality, just like we are at LEON. He made his machines with coffee quality in mind, not just simplicity of service. That made them the perfect choice for us.”

The two days in Switzerland showed that the Eversys e’series could hit the high quality standards LEON strive for. The other most important factor for Andrea and his team was delivering this quality consistently.

“The machine’s consistency is probably the most important factor for us. We put great effort into selecting our coffee, so every cup we sell has to be great. Eversys’ super-automatic machines do that for us – you just can’t compare the consistency of the coffee to another machine. They are as reliable as it gets.

“I run a lot of coffee training sessions, and so many baristas think, ‘oh, it’s just an automatic’, when they hear about the machine. Their perceptions are that it won’t be as good as a traditional machine. But when they get to use it, they immediately realise what it’s capable of. And during a busy service, they quickly see how much easier the Eversys machines make their lives. In our busiest station sites, we simply wouldn’t be able to cope during peak times if it wasn’t for the machine’s speed.”

LEON’s sites have a combination of e’series machines, with its busiest locations using two e’4 machines to deal with consumer demand. Andrea’s plans for the future will see a lot more Eversys machines in LEON’s restaurants around the country.

“Every new site we open will have an Eversys machine, and we’re looking to introduce them to more of our current locations. The e’4 in particular is our machine of choice, delivering exactly what we need in regards to speed and capacity. Once we have a larger estate of e’4 machines, we’re looking forward to utilising the telemetry system further to make sure we’re really getting the most out of each machine.

“Introducing an e’4 to all of our sites will help us keep our coffee offer even more consistent – bringing us right back to hitting our high quality standards.”

LEON’s vision is to bring healthy, high-quality fast food to every major city around the world and Eversys is excited to be a part of it.