SOCIAL Bite, the not for profit coffee shop chain co-owned by Scottish entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn, has introduced a "cashless" coffee cup.
The social enterprise is believed to have become the first business in the UK to use the Frank Green SmartCup, which allows customers to pay for their coffee by scanning the lid on specially-developed cups.
The technology, unveiled before thousands of coffee fans at the London Coffee Festival, allows users to earn loyalty points and send a coffee to friends via an app synched to the cup.
Mr Littlejohn, who has successfully diversified Social Bite into corporate catering, said: "The Frank Green SmartCup is clearly a leading-edge solution and we're always looking for new innovations and ways to engage with our customers."
The reusable cup is also said to address the environmental impact caused by the disposal of the many thousands of paper coffee cups in the UK per day. According to Frank Green, there are more than 19,000 outlets in the UK selling single-use coffee cups.
The company wants the UK to follow the lead taken by Australia, where it is suggested 30 per cent of people take their own cups into coffee shops.
Rod Mountford, Frank Green's Scottish-based managing director, said: "Social Bite is a business we have admired for some time and we're delighted that they will be the first coffee shop in the UK to introduce our technology.
"A cup of coffee is the most traded micro-transaction in the world with around five billion cups a day sold and consumer research tells us there's a gap in the market for consumers who want seamless cashless payments.
"We believe this new technology can completely revolutionise the way people buy coffee and it's fitting that a great cause like Social Bite should lead the way here in the UK."
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