Long-time Coca-Cola customer Roy Rogers Restaurants became the first full-serve restaurant to offer the Coca-Cola Company’s new proprietary fountain dispenser, in its Leesburg, Virginia, location. The restaurant’s 540 East Market St. location, which just completed an interior remodel, installed the Coca-Cola Freestyle on Oct. 5. This is Roy Rogers’ third location in 2011 to install and offer Coca-Cola Freestyle.
“Roy Rogers’ Market Street location is having a grand re-opening event on Oct. 29, but to gain excitement around the Coca-Cola Freestyle, we will also be hosting Happy Hours on Thursdays and Fridays from 2–5 p.m.,” says Gwyn Geiman, director of marketing. “These will begin Oct. 20 and will give our guests an opportunity to experience the new state-of- the-art machine. All guests will receive a free, small Coca-Cola beverage of their choice with any purchase during these happy hours. We are extremely proud to be the first Coca-Cola beverage partner to offer this technology in the Leesburg area.”
The sleek, stylish fountains are touch-screen operated, enabling guests to select from more than 100 regular and low-calorie beverage brands, including many varieties of waters, fruit-flavored beverages, and sparkling beverages that, prior to the arrival of Coca-Cola Freestyle, were not available in the U.S. The self-serve fountains, which represent a complete departure from anything The Coca-Cola Company has offered previously, were in development for more than four years before their launch in 2010.
“We have created a concept that is quickly becoming recognized as the soda fountain of the future – a representation of the way people will experience Coca-Cola beverages years from now,” says Gene Farrell, vice president, Coca-Cola Freestyle, Coca-Cola North America.
2009 beta testing of the fountains included more than 50 restaurants in Georgia and southern California. Results from these tests indicated a significant increase in total restaurant sales–including fountain servings–as well as a measurable lift in traffic.
The Coca-Cola Freestyle dispenser uses unique, proprietary PurePour Technology and has the capacity to dispense 106 beverage varieties in the same amount of space as a standard eight-valve machine.
