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Coffee Star moves its Coffee ATMs to the Covid-19 front line, serving free cups
With its airport, mall and office-tower sites hit by the pandemic, Coffee Star redeployed its self-service Coffee ATMs to MAEPS Serdang and Sungai Buloh Hospital, serving more than 10,000 free cups since 14 April.
PETALING JAYA, 4 June 2020 — For Malaysia’s healthcare workers in the early months of the Covid-19 outbreak, shifts ran long and the rest between them was short. At two front-line sites, a small comfort stood waiting: a touchscreen, a choice of drinks and a freshly brewed coffee, free of charge and served without anyone behind a counter.
The comfort came from Coffee Star, a Malaysian start-up. Free Malaysia Today reported on 4 June 2020 that the company’s self-service Coffee ATMs were giving out the free coffee in two places: Sungai Buloh Hospital and the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS). Counting from 14 April, the machines there had poured more than 10,000 cups.
Inside Retail Asia added a detail the next day: the exhibition park was then in use as a 600-patient quarantine and treatment centre.
The design suited the moment. A frontliner tapped a screen, picked a drink and took the cup without a single hand-off between people, because no one staffed the machine at all. Free Malaysia Today drew the contrast with a traditional barista machine.
The idea came out of the company’s own disruption. Its founder and chief executive, Raja Ahmad Fauzan, explained the move to Free Malaysia Today. “We experienced the impact of the coronavirus directly throughout our business locations in airports, shopping malls and office towers,” he said.
The answer was to move them. “So, we redeployed our machines from those locations to serve up fresh, free coffee to frontliners,” he said. To both outlets he spoke of admiration for the frontliners. Word had reached the company that they were running on empty, and the coffee was its way of honouring what they had given up; in Free Malaysia Today’s telling, that meant their rest and their own safety. The thanks arrived one hot cup at a time.
Ramadan and Hari Raya had passed without a pause for the country’s frontliners, Zaidi Shahrim, chief executive of MAEPS, told Free Malaysia Today, and the park’s part in the scheme was its thanks to them. Speaking to Inside Retail Asia, he called them heroes.
Sungai Buloh Hospital had hundreds of people on its staff pulling long hours. Its director, Dr Kuldip Kaur, told Free Malaysia Today she hoped the gesture would spread, because “even the smallest acts of kindness can have a significant impact”.
Today Coffee Star runs Auto-Baristas at more than 114 locations across Malaysia. The same self-service machines now go to exhibitions and events as pop-up coffee bars. On 24 September 2026 it launched its fully managed Office Coffee Service at MIHAS 2026.
Original coverage
Read the original articles
- Free Malaysia TodayLocal startup serves 10,000 cups of coffee for frontliners ↗
- Inside Retail AsiaMalaysian startup installs ‘Coffee ATMs’ for frontline medical staff ↗
Links open the publisher’s site in a new tab. This page re-reports their coverage in our own words.
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