Our September issue contains the second of our two annual industry surveys: the State of the Office Coffee Services Industry report. This is my third SOCI, as I like to think of it, and our first on a new surveying platform that allowed for new question formats and a better survey experience. I also revisited the data, fine-tuning the questions and reporting to better reflect OCS today.

SOCI follows our State of the Vending and Micro Markets Industry report, or SOVI, which appeared in our June/July issue and got the same glow-up. Though each survey collected data from a separate pool of respondents, the two point to some larger trends.

Location expansion is a growth engine. More than 70% of SOVI respondents increased locations in 2025; 76% of OCS respondents did the same. And they are looking beyond traditional workplaces: Locations outside offices generated 60% of the OCS respondent revenue mix, while SOVI showed operators working across manufacturing, education, healthcare, hospitality, residential and other nontraditional locations.

Top-line growth continues but costs rise. SOVI estimated convenience-services revenue increased 18.3% to $40.04 billion, while 82% of OCS respondents reported higher revenue. But respondents also reported price increases and cost absorption.

Operators are adding formats, not replacing one with another. Smart coolers grew while vending and micro markets remained important. Likewise capsule/pod and bean-to-cup placements increased, but traditional glass-pot and thermal equipment still represented about 49% of the installed base.

The larger strategic shift is matching the format to the location. SOVI presented smart coolers as an option for locations that may not support a traditional micro market. In OCS, nearly three-quarters of respondents served locations with fewer than 250 employees. The common response: use equipment and formats suited to the account rather than applying one model everywhere.

Growth is increasing the need to scale efficiently. In OCS, 76% increased locations but only 47% increased staffing. SOVI showed increased reliance on technology-enabled formats. Together, the findings suggest pressure to serve more locations without equivalent headcount growth — but do not prove that technology produced labor savings.

Taken together, SOVI and SOCI describe an industry growing not simply by selling more products through more machines, but by expanding where and how it serves customers.

That makes the industry harder to define neatly. It also makes the potential market much bigger.