A pub makes about £2.50 of gross profit on a £3.50 cappuccino, an 86% GP, because the coffee and milk in it cost about 42p. That's roughly what a £5.34 pint leaves you, around £2.45, with no keg to change and no duty in it. A leased bean-to-cup machine at £16.57 to £55.62 a week pays for itself at 7 to 23 coffees a week. The money leaks out in two places nobody watches: the milk you pour away and the beans you can't account for.
Search for coffee profit in pubs and you get trade pieces from 2016 and 2018 and a lot of coffee suppliers telling you it's "high margin" without a single number. So here's the sum with prices I checked on 28 October 2026, laid out so you can swap in your own invoice prices.
What's in a cup, priced
Beans: a 1kg bag of Lavazza Crema e Aroma was £12.50 on Ocado when I checked, a common pub and office bean. A double shot is around 18g, so that's 22.5p of coffee a cup and about 55 doubles a bag. Milk: Asda semi-skimmed was £1.65 for four pints, 2.272 litres, so about 72.6p a litre. A cappuccino needs around 200ml in the jug once you allow for the foam and a bit left over.
| Drink | Coffee | Milk | Sugar, biscuit, napkin (my allowance) | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cappuccino or latte | 22.5p (18g) | 14.5p (200ml) | 5p | 42p |
| Americano with a splash of milk | 22.5p (18g) | 2.2p (30ml) | 5p | 30p |
| Single espresso | 11.3p (9g) | 0p | 5p | 16p |
Your own beans might be dearer, a lot of supplier deals price the beans higher in exchange for the machine. Put your price per kg in: divide it by 1,000 and multiply by 18 for a double.
What you make on it, after VAT
Hot drinks are standard-rated whether they're drunk in or taken away, HMRC's catering notice says so in plain terms, so a sixth of the price on the board goes to VAT. Matthew Algie's pricing survey had the average latte or cappuccino at £3.33 and an americano at £3.00 in early 2024. Finder's figure for an average UK coffee in 2026 is £3.97, built from Numbeo and Expatistan data. I've used £3.50 and £3.00 below.
| Drink | Price on the board | Less VAT | Cost | Cash profit | GP% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cappuccino | £3.50 | £2.92 | 42p | £2.50 | 86% |
| Americano | £3.00 | £2.50 | 30p | £2.20 | 88% |
| Pint at £5.34, for comparison | £5.34 | £4.45 | about £2.00 | about £2.45 | about 55% |
That's the bit that surprised me. A cappuccino at £3.50 leaves about the same cash as a pint at £5.34. The pint carries duty and a brewery price, the coffee carries 37p of beans and milk. GP% on coffee looks enormous, but it's the cash per serve that pays the wages, and on that it's level with a pint, not miles ahead. If you're judging the coffee, judge it in pints.
The machine, and how many cups pay for it
Caffia publishes its prices, which most coffee suppliers don't. Its bean-to-cup range runs from about £1,995 to £6,695 to buy outright, or £16.57 to £55.62 a week on a three-year lease and £10.59 to £35.54 a week over five, all excluding VAT. A traditional espresso machine starts around £2,979.60 to buy or £19.10 a week to lease.
| Machine cost a week | Coffees a week to break even |
|---|---|
| £10.59 (cheapest five-year bean-to-cup lease) | 5 |
| £16.57 (cheapest three-year bean-to-cup lease) | 7 |
| £19.10 (traditional espresso lease) | 8 |
| £55.62 (top three-year bean-to-cup lease) | 23 |
Most pubs that serve food clear seven coffees a week on a Sunday alone. Forty coffees a week on the cheapest three-year lease is about £100 of gross profit, £83 after the machine, so roughly £4,300 a year. Ask what the lease includes before you sign: servicing, the water filter, cleaning tablets and call-outs can each be extras, and a three-year lease is a long time to be tied to a machine you don't like. If the supplier offers the machine free, compare their bean price per kg with the shop price above. The machine's being paid for somewhere.
Where the money actually leaks
The milk jug. The habit in a lot of places is to fill the big jug, steam it, pour one drink and tip the rest. If that's 500ml a drink instead of 200ml, the milk cost goes from 14.5p to about 36p a cup. On 100 coffees a week that's about £22 a week, or roughly £1,130 a year, poured down the sink. That's not anyone being careless, it's the size of the jug. Buy the small jug, put a fill line on it with a marker, and the problem mostly goes away.
The beans you can't account for. A 1kg bag should give you about 55 double shots. If the till says you sold 40 coffees out of a bag, 15 cups are missing somewhere: staff drinks, remakes, the grinder dose set too high, or coffees made and not rung. At £2.50 each that's £37.50 of profit a bag. You'd never let 15 pints a keg go without asking why, and it's exactly the same check. I go through the keg version in how many pints in a keg.
One idea worth trying
Put the coffee in your stocktake. Weigh the open bag of beans and count the sealed ones on the same day you count the bar, then do it again a week later. Kilos used times 55 is the doubles you should have sold. Compare it with the till's coffee buttons for the week. It takes two minutes with the kitchen scales, and it's the only way you'll ever know whether the coffee machine is the 86% earner it looks like on paper. If you count dry stock already, it fits straight into the kitchen stocktake, and wet versus dry stock explains where it sits in the figures.
And charge for oat milk. The same Algie survey found independents adding about 34p for alternative milks and chains about 23p. Customers expect it, and oat milk costs you more than cow's.
Common questions
How much profit does a pub make on a coffee?
About £2.50 on a £3.50 cappuccino once VAT is taken off, at around 42p of beans, milk and extras, on prices checked in October 2026. That's an 86% GP and roughly the same cash as a £5.34 pint.
What GP should a pub make on coffee?
On shop prices for beans and milk, 85% to 88% on a cappuccino or americano after VAT. If yours is well below that, check the bean price your supplier charges and how much milk is being poured away.
How many coffees does a 1kg bag of beans make?
About 55 double shots at 18g each. Compare kilos used with the coffees rung through the till to find missing cups.
Is coffee standard-rated for VAT in a pub?
Yes. HMRC's catering notice says food and drink consumed on the premises is standard-rated, and hot takeaway drinks are standard-rated too.
How much does a pub coffee machine cost?
Caffia's published prices run from about £1,995 to £6,695 to buy a bean-to-cup machine, or £16.57 to £55.62 a week on a three-year lease, excluding VAT. At £2.50 profit a cup that's 7 to 23 coffees a week to cover it.
Sources
- Lavazza Crema e Aroma beans 1kg, £12.50: Ocado, checked 28 October 2026.
- Asda British semi-skimmed milk 4 pints (2.272L), £1.65: Trolley price tracker, checked 28 October 2026.
- Hot takeaway drinks standard-rated, food and drink consumed on the premises always standard-rated: HMRC VAT Notice 709/1, sections 3.1 and 4.1.
- Average latte or cappuccino £3.33, americano £3.00, flat white £3.23, alternative milk surcharge 34p independents and 23p chains, survey January 2024: Matthew Algie Pricing Survey.
- Average UK coffee £3.97 in 2026 (Numbeo and Expatistan data, March 2026): Finder.
- Bean-to-cup £1,995 to £6,695 to buy, £16.57 to £55.62 a week on a three-year lease, £10.59 to £35.54 on five years, traditional espresso from £2,979.60 or £19.10 a week, excluding VAT: Caffia, published July 2026.
- £2.45 gross profit on a £5.34 pint: my electricity per pint guide. The 18g and 200ml quantities, the 5p allowance, every cost, GP and break-even figure and the jug and bean-yield sums are my own arithmetic. Put your own invoice prices in.