The Island’s two biggest coffee distributors have blended.

Convenience Coffee and CoffeeWorks have merged into a single company, which will operate under the Convenience Coffee banner, to become the largest of its kind in Bermuda.

The owners said that with the economies of scale the new business will provide higher levels of service, a bigger range of coffee, tea and other drinks, at the same or lower prices.

Herwig Weikl, who started Convenience Coffee in 2007, will manage the new company on a day-to-day basis.

He said: “The transition will be completely seamless for our customers.

“They can still call the same phone numbers and order online through the same websites.

“But immediately, they will see quicker delivery times.

“Shortly, we will be merging our websites, but for now our easy online ordering remains the same.”

The new business will operate from the existing CoffeeWorks location on Paget’s Harvey Road and offer more than 300 types of coffee and tea.

Mr Weikl said the two businessmen got together and decided it made better sense to join forces than compete in the same market.

He added: “We’re trying to make it better, make both companies work better together so the customer gets benefits too.

“We’re trying to actually improve the business in terms of service and everything else.”

And Mr Weikl said: “We look forward to serving all of the customers of Convenience Coffee and CoffeeWorks, not as usual, but better.”

Mr Weikl added that the recession had hit sales.

He said: “It affected both companies because we had 7,000 expats leaving.

“It has recovered slowly, I would say. But it definitely affected us with people leaving.”

Mr Weikl added: “We do deal a lot with offices — that’s our main business, I would say.

“If the recession eases, more businesses open, there’s more people and more coffee will be sold.”

CoffeeWorks, originally part of the Liquid Group, was launched 14 years ago by businessman Paul Claude.