Birmingham firm places key vending machine order
BIRMINGHAM based fuel card supplier ARVAL UK has signed a major agreement with vending company SnackTime for the sale and installation of a major new system.
SnackTime, the fourth largest vending company in the UK, will be supplying its machines to ARVAL’s Birmingham and Swindon offices, which together employ more than 1,000 people.
ARVAL required a vending provider which could supply hot beverages, chilled cans and bottles, snacks, confectionery and chilled purified water to both its staff and visitors at each site.
A significant prerequisite to awarding the three year contract was that the machines needed to be capable of dispensing drinks and confectionery by a variety of payment methods, including a cashless (card) payment system, cash and free vend.
The system, which has been installed, is expected to dispense approximately 750,000 drinks and snacks per annum, although it has the capacity to raise that figure to over 1,000,000, if necessary. The Birmingham site will be serviced by VMI and Simply Drinks is responsible for the Swindon HQ.
The contract is particularly significant because this is SnackTime’s first major installation of a cash/cashless combination payment vending system as opposed to cash handling and smaller cashless sites which up until now have been SnackTime’s prime focus.
Blair Jenkins, chief executive of SnackTime, said the contract was a major boost for the listed company.
“Until now, such large scale cash/cashless installations have been rare in the vending industry, but I expect they are going to become a growing feature of the market, particularly in large office sites. I believe that we are very well placed to capture a significant share of this developing sector of our market,” he said.
