Gallery of horrors
Butter at a breakfast buffet – often an unappetizing sight!
Look familiar? Butter served at a breakfast buffet is often an unappetizing sight: it’s either too hard, or too soft. Once a few guests have served themselves, the butter dish that was decorated lovingly by the staff starts to look quite unappetizing, and frequently unhygienic too. This happens mostly if the butter portions are hand-cut or frozen butter is served in a bowl of ice water. Sometimes it is really disgusting.
Hygienic mini-packs are certainly a better alternative. But with these, guests get butter all over their fingers while fumbling to open them. Moreover, mini-packs have a terrible environmental footprint, not to mention that they are also very costly.
If that weren’t enough, most breakfast buffets don’t even comply with food safety and HACCP regulations for the butter they serve.
No more!
Perfect butter – at the push of a button!
Finally, butter as it should be: Yummy. Fresh. Spreadable. Great tasting. And cheap too. With a ButterSpender, no need to panic when inspectors come knocking on the door – particularly to check for compliance with the main requirement of constant cooling. Best of all, you can spoil your guests with your spreadable, appetizing butter.
How does it work? With its patented cooling system, our ButterSpender processes the butter in small servings. Within just three seconds of pushing the button, out pops a portion of appetizingly fresh butter onto a plate below, in a consistency perfect for spreading.
The ButterSpender shows that you really care about your guests, hygiene and the environment.
Main features of the ButterSpender
Economic
Very short ROI, thanks to lower purchase costs (no more expensive single portion mini-packs) and lower consumption.
Hygienic
Fully compliant with food-safety laws – thanks to constant cooling, easy cleaning, and a protective enclosure.
Tasty
Delectably fresh butter portions served at the push of a button! Spreadable. Perfect temperature. Creamy taste. Just the way butter should be.
Less waste
No more wasted mini-pack wrappings. No leftover butter. Less consumption.
Why the ButterSpender is essentially free!
Sample calculation.
Key benefits of the ButterSpender
For your guests
Perfect temperature, spreadable
Butter served at a buffet is often too hard, or too soft, and soon begins to look disgusting. No more! Our ButterSpender ensures the perfect temperature and spreadability!
Hygienic, clean
The guests and staff do not come in contact with the butter. No more fumbling with mini-packs and, hence, no buttery fingers! Adieu to ice water bowls and water drops on your breakfast plate.
Culinary experience
Delectably fresh butter portions served at the push of a button. These are easy-to-spread and taste much better! Really delicious!
Very easy-to-use
The one-button operation is intuitive. No mistakes are possible. No wonder, the young and old love our ButterSpender.
For the environment
For your business
Economic
Significant savings. Forget expensive mini-packs of butter and look forward to much less consumption! Businesses that manage recycling can eliminate the need to separate the mini-packaging and butter for recycling and save money and time.
Flexible, service-friendly
The butter can be left in the dispenser all day long, since it is constantly cooled. The ButterSpender is versatile, with numerous uses. It’s easy and quick to set up, refill and clean.
Totally hygienic, HACCP compliant
Guests and staff do not come in contact with the butter. No break in the cooling chain. All relevant components of the dispenser are dishwasher safe.
Guests love it, enhances your image
The butter is hygienic, fresh, and spreadable on the plate. Your business comes across as guest-friendly, innovative and environment-friendly. Link your corporate design to great service with your own label on the front of the ButterSpender.
Cut waste, conserve resources
No more environmentally damaging metal foil and/or plastic: cut tons of waste and reduce your environmental footprint. In fact, you can help eliminate the need to even manufacture mini-packs made of high-grade raw materials and do away with long transportation distances for brand-name packages. With our ButterSpender, you may order big canisters of low-cost butter from regional producers, for instance. Another plus: you won’t have to throw away butter anymore, and guests will no longer swipe mini-packs. That is true environmental protection and waste reduction. You not only eliminate extra costs – you actually generate higher profits.
The innovation for portioning butter at a buffet.
Many people are unaware of what our ButterSpender really is or does. We have compiled answers to the most frequently asked questions:
Why a ButterSpender?
Butter served at a breakfast buffet is often an unappetizing sight: it’s either too hard, too soft, in expensive single portion mini-packs that are bad for the environment, or floating in ice water. What’s worse, most breakfast buffets don’t even comply with food safety and HACCP regulations for the butter they serve. No more! Finally, butter as it should be: Appetizing. Fresh. Spreadable. Great tasting. And very cheap too. With a ButterSpender, no need to panic when inspectors come knocking on the door. It also shows that you really care about your guests, hygiene and the environment.
Where is the ButterSpender best suited?
Our ButterSpender is perfect for serving butter at buffets anywhere – from luxury hotels to youth hostels, canteens to student housing/rehab centres, furniture stores to cruise ships, etc. – i.e., wherever your priority lies on hygiene and keeping guests happy. The amount of savings rises with the number of guests served. It’s not rare to save several hundred Euros monthly. The outcome is an enhanced image and better economics: happy guests – safer environment – lower costs.
Is a ButterSpender the right choice for my business?
On average, do you serve breakfast to more than 50 guests daily? Are you still using the costly mini-packs? If so, our ButterSpender is the right way to go. Above a threshold of roughly 70 guests for breakfast every day, it is basically free because typical savings exceed the depreciation upon purchase or the monthly costs to lease our dispenser. A rule of thumb: savings are proportional to the number of guests. So, if you serve breakfast to more than about 150 guests a day, our ButterSpender is a must-have. Many of our customers save hundreds of Euros – monthly, not annually!
How does the dispenser portion the butter?
With its patented cooling system, our ButterSpender processes the butter in small servings. Within just three seconds of pushing the button, out pops a small portion of appetizingly fresh butter onto a plate, in a consistency perfect for spreading.
How do you fill butter into the ButterSpender?
The unit comes with three stainless steel canisters with a capacity of 1,500 g (52.8 oz.) or approx. 120 portions each. Just prefill the canisters with regular butter and refrigerate. It is very easy and takes less than a minute to place the canister into the dispenser or to replenish it. You can always order extra canisters.
What is the serving size and can one change that?
Each portion weighs about 12 g or 0.4 oz., which we have found to be ideal. This and other parameters are fixed. It is a snap to operate the dispenser: no need to program or set anything, which is great in practice.
Do I need special butter?
No! Any butter will do, because the ButterSpender works with all conventional kinds. The portioning enhances the taste and guests find the butter to be especially creamy, which naturally pleases them each time. From a cost standpoint, the standard 250 g (8.8 oz.) bricks are the best, and most of our customers use these. You can also use butter blocks. But please get pure butter, no mixtures or any varieties sold as “especially spreadable.” Forget expensive brand names.
What about cleaning?
The butter touches only the stainless steel canisters and portioning device, both of which are dishwasher safe. The dispenser’s outer surface can be wiped with a moist cloth. The air inlet must be cleaned every week. That’s it.
How about your customer service?
Our ButterSpender is very robust. However, just in case it does happen to break down, our experts are there to help within 24 hours – by phone or on-site. We will give you a free replacement, if we can’t resolve the problem immediately on-site. We are aware of the special needs of our customers. That is why our service hotline is open 24/7 and technicians are on standby on Sundays and holidays too.
Do you sell different models?
Our standard model comes in a neutral white, which fits well into most places. You can, however, customize your unit with a special label on the front to match your corporate design.
How much does it cost?
Our ButterSpender has its price. But generally it is not only effectively free, it saves you major operating costs – because you can forget expensive mini-packs. Typically, you can count on saving over 50% of your butter costs.
Can I try out your ButterSpender?
Certainly! Please send us an email or call us and request a nonbinding trial, including training of your staff. Alternatively, you can lease the ButterSpender, because our leasing contracts include a trial period. You win either way, because you’re not buying a pig in a poke.
Awards
International Inventors Trade Fair, Nuremberg
Gold Medal
International Inventors Trade Fair, Geneva
Prix du Public and Gold Medal awarded “with the highest commendation by the jury” – this is the first German invention recognized by Geneva Inventors Trade Fair in its 4-decade history.
Interview with Heinz Horrmann
World famous hotel and restaurant critic
Distinguished by the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences with the Five Star Diamond Award, as the best hotel critic worldwide.
On CNN, Mr. Horrmann was introduced as the “most esteemed hotel censor worldwide.”
Mr. Horrmann has tested services at top hotels and resorts worldwide for the Leading Hotels of the World, Inc., and for the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences.
Question: Mr. Horrmann, you’ve tested lots of breakfast buffets around the world. What do you think of the way butter is laid out?
Horrmann: That’s a good question! Of roughly 2,000, I was happy with the butter in very few of them. It was either floating, or the butter stars, which I think are silly anyway, were in an ice bucket. It melts slowly and then all one has is this broth. Or they replenish it and it’s hard as hell and I need a guillotine to cut it. The butter ruined my day!
Question: Ilotec developed the ButterSpender, which is known to have solved this entire problem. You know this dispenser. What do you think of it?
Horrmann: I only get involved in things that I truly believe in. I smiled a bit at first, unsure of what was in store. And then I tried it, just having come from a presentation by a 3-star chef.
So I spread it on a slice of farmer’s bread. I can’t really say why the butter tasted so creamy and much better than all others, but it was fantastic just eating the buttered slice.
Question: You’d call it a true culinary experience?
Horrmann: Absolutely. Yes, yes!
Question: What other benefits do you see with the ButterSpender?
Horrmann: Well, for one, the butter is easy-to-spread. Secondly, it always has the fragrance of cream. Engineers and chemists can explain that to me. But I’m only interested in talking about the taste. I also think the hotel gains in many ways. One has to throw away butter that has become mushy – and I’ll be straight with you – and tons of waste paper has to be disposed of. It’s true, the ButterSpender is better on these aspects too. It’s not expensive to deliver good tasting butter and care for the guest. Unfortunately, too often the guest is not put in the spotlight, but rather seen as a hindrance.
Question: How do you rate the economics of the ButterSpender?
Horrmann: I’ve done my homework on that. You can put any brand of butter into the canister. The mini-portions are the most expensive item, regardless of whether they are delivered like that or if one must remove the wrapping. Also, a lot has to be thrown out for hygienic reasons. In this case, nothing is wasted. The product, as I said, turns creamy from the pressure and always remains the same. And it is certainly much cheaper for the hotelier than the awful butter cubes or stars etc. that the hotel served before.
Question: Would you go so far as to say that a ButterSpender is a must for every breakfast buffet, anywhere in the world?
Horrmann: My personal opinion, yes! And all hoteliers with whom I have spoken about this were, interestingly, enthusiastic about this later, because they had undoubtedly mulled over the problem sometime earlier.
Question: What types of hotels would benefit most from the ButterSpender?
Horrmann: All of them! Doesn’t matter if they are cheap hotels, or mid-range 3-star hotels that would like to spoil their guests. But in reality for them it is not really important whether the butter tastes great or that the cold cut is perfect. In top class hotels, those for connoisseurs, or gourmet hotels like the ones in the German Black forest, for them it is really critical and crucial for business, more than anything else, that the butter is a culinary experience. And that’s the way it is here!
Question: This almost sounds like a recommendation for the ButterSpender, without reservations.
Horrmann: There’s no other recommendation I would make so strongly from the bottom of my heart!
Note for readers: the language of the translation above may not be quite smooth, because it is based on a transcript of a video interview.
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