FOOD NEWS
How Five Guys Helped Launch Coca-Cola Freestyle Machines
By Brian Boone
Five Guys features a straightforward menu of burgers, fries, and shakes that are customizable with condiments and add-ons, but the most expansive part of their menu is the soft drinks at the Coca-Cola Freestyle kiosk. Freestyle is a cutting-edge vending machine offering hundreds of different beverages, and Five Guys got dibs on the novel technology when it was introduced.
Coca-Cola figured out that they could break down most soft drinks into basic packets of ingredients that could be combined at the push of a button, which led to Freestyle’s wide array of choices. In 2011, the cutting-edge drink dispensing technology received a significant vote of confidence when Five Guys became the biggest food service partner to install Coca-Cola Freestyle kiosks in its stores.
Five Guys agreed to give the Freestyle machines a try as part of a lucrative contract extension, committing to bringing in two Freestyle machines to a sizable portion of the 1,000-plus locations open at the time. As of 2022, there are more than 1,400 Five Guys outlets in the U.S., with most prominently displaying a duo of Freestyle machines.