NORTH Yorkshire vending machine and refreshment specialist Upton Group has secured its first ever contract to supply its entire product range after signing the UK’s third biggest casino as its latest customer.

Selby-based Upton Group, which last year acquired York Coffee Emporium, won the contract to supply the new £30 million Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds with its complete range of services including a barista coffee machine, a bulk-brewing ground coffee machine which can make up to 100 cups at a time, bean-to-cup coffee machines; water cooler systems and fully-stocked vending machines.

The contract is among Upton Group’s biggest in West Yorkshire and the first to involve virtually all its range of products and services which has also included staff barista training and twice weekly restocking of the two vending machines for the use of the casino’s 200 staff.

Upton Group sales director Darren Carter said: “This is a very significant contract for us, covering virtually all our products and services since the acquisition of York Coffee Emporium last year, allowing us to show how effectively we can work together to meet the needs of a good-sized, busy leisure venue.

“Being able to add artisan hand-roasted coffees to our offer enables us to meet the needs of businesses striving for high quality as part of a wide range of services and this helps Victoria Gate Casino serve its wide range of visitors. We are delighted to be supporting them.”

The Victoria Gate Casino, which is owned by Global Gaming Ventures and funded by a US private Equity firm, opened in 50,000 sq ft premises in The Headrow in January.

Victoria Gate Casino head of food and beverage, John Davies, a former senior member of the Catering Management Team at York Racecourse, said: “We were attracted by Upton Group’s artisan coffees through York Coffee Emporium and soon discovered that the wider business has the product and service range to meet all our needs.

“Although serving a casino is new to Upton Group, they quickly understood our needs across our different venues. It is far easier for us to deal with a single supplier and we see this as the start of a long-term relationship. We may seek to work with York Coffee Emporium to develop our own bespoke coffee blend in due course.”

The Upton Group also has bases in Scarborough and Hull and supplies a range of refreshment systems to a spectrum of enterprises from SMEs to international businesses throughout the UK.