ATLANTA - Coca-Cola??s Freestyle fountain dispenser has contributed to increased beverage sales at restaurants testing the concept, Nation??s Restaurant News reports. Those operators indicate that even though installing the dispenser and educating consumers on its usage have been challenging, the results have been worth the effort.

The Freestyle System has a touch-screen and allows users to create more than 100 drinks by combining sodas, water and flat beverages. Coke??s pilot program for the Freestyle included beta testing in 50 stores and has now been expanded into its second testing phase.

Participating restaurants Firehouse Subs and Stevi B??s Pizza liked the streamlined design and the way the Freestyle encouraged customer interaction?"and the increased drink sales.

"I can tell you, and this is kind of interesting, that we offer [special] to-go cups as an upsell, and in the seven days before [we put in the machines] we sold 29 cups," said Matt Loney, CEO of Stevi B??. "In the four days since June 23, we sold 133." The pizza-buffet chain had three stores involved in the initial testing and nine would be participating in the second round.

"We??ve got more people eating in the restaurants," said Firehouse Subs CEO Don Fox. "We??re up 3 percent, which is important for our brand. The consumer loves [the machine]; we??ve sold more soft drinks because of it. I do know that we??ve seen an increase in fountain sales as a percentage of our beverage mix. Our soft drink incidence is up about 5 percent."