Fat Free Snacks in Vending

Having fat free snacks in your Antares vending machines may or may not be profitable for your business. When fat free snacks were first introduced in the vending business, positive response to it was slow. These days’ things have changed as more and more people are aware of the benefits of fat free snacks. These people want to live healthy lives, and the best way they can do that is to eat healthy.

Americans are snackers, and now more than half of the Americans are overweight. For people who are interested in reducing fat in their diet, they want the choice of being able to purchase fat free snacks. As a result of this there are millions of consumers who are enjoying the benefits of these fat free snacks. As an Antares vending operator it would be advisable for you to leave some shelf space for fat free snacks that will serve those snackers who are conscious of their weight.

Some industry observers, however, think that there is no future for fat free snacks. They think that these snacks have not performed as well as they were expected to. There are some basic reasons for this.

Pricing health concerns cited

These items are premium priced, making them less affordable to a number of people. Another problem is that people are generally not interested in fat free snacks. Even vending consumers in the west coast, where healthy living and fat free food are more lifestyles than trends, are indifferent to the advent of these fat free snacks. This is something that of course has changed over time. People today, are more interested in what they eat. This of course is a great opportunity for your Antares vending operation.

Vendors not overly excited

A survey of several vending operator turns up a similar disinterest and disappointment in fat free snacks. These are operators that have tried to sell fat free snacks at their locations and they have not had much success.

This does not mean that this is what will happen in your Antares business, when you decide to sell fat free snacks. There are certain snacks that are a hit with a number of consumers and when you place them in your vending machines, they will definitely be a number of customers that will purchase them. Some products taste so great that it is not only the health conscious consumers that buy them, but the public in general.

Raising the Image of Vending

Meeting consumer demand and using branded products are all part of raising the image of vending. The average consumer is becoming more knowledgeable and educated when buying a product, and brands are now very important. If you can provide a branded product in your Antares business and educate the consumer on the value of it, the future will be very bright for vending.

Branding seen as key to growth

For your Antares vending business by Natural Choice it is important that you believe in the importance of branding. Manufacturers are starting to see the vending industry as a more credible marketing channel. This marketing can be done on a smaller scale, meaning that instead of doing a dedicated branded machine, you could do a dedicated branded shelf or a spiral within a machine. Anything that you can do as an Antares operator to leverage brand equity enhances the image of vending.

How the c-stores changed their image

The vend industry hasn’t done a good job at marketing themselves. At one time c-stores had to overcome a negative stereotype. There are similarities between vending and c-store evolution. The c-store eventually overcame a stereotype as an overpriced outlet to one that offers great convenience and away to save time.

The shopper no longer price shops between a supermarket and a c-store; they understand that c-stores are selling a convenience. In this way, the vending industry can change consumer perception as well. Your Antares operation should focus on marketing. Large vending operations should have an entire division dedicated to marketing. The customer needs to be educated about the service that the vending industry provides for them.

The vending industry needs to be promoted as a whole. You need some critical mass to cost effectively do that. If the vending industry can get the consumer to perceive the vending industry for what it is, margin pressures would basically go away. If the public is educated about the services that are being provided, they would be more willing to pay for it. If all vend operators continue to compete strictly based on vend price, then that means that the industry won’t move forward.

The Website as Part of Marketing

When you build a website for your Antares operations, there are certain objectives that you would want to meet. Most likely, you would want your website to do the following:

• Generate more sales leads.
• Communicate to prospective customers that your company is professional and service oriented.
• Modernize and simplify the preparation of new business proposals for prospective customers
• Create a convenient alternative to the telephone for processing customer service and equipment service inquiries

Website design considerations

When designing the website for your Antares business, you need to ensure that the users would be able to get their desired information in two clicks or less. You should also use appropriate technologies and visuals that are not distracting. They should all be useful. Many websites violate these basic rules and often frustrate users in the process. You need to keep users on your site and retain their attention so that you can stand a chance of creating more sales leads for your Antares vending business.

For visual design, it is critical to coordinate efforts with other existing marketing tactics and elements. Your website must mirror your company logo, business cards, letterhead, brochures, truck signage and uniforms. Keeping it simple is the foundation to a successful website. To do this you would need to create a site with a pleasing appearance and also keep as much information “above the fold” (above the cutoff point at the bottom of a computer) as possible. You would also need to build a menu structure that is consistent with industry standards.

Separate yourself from the competition through effective writing. People don’t read website content like they do off line media. You will need to keep your paragraphs short in no more than three sentences. At the same time include white space on all your content pages. Links incorporated in your pages is also very important.

Pay careful attention to how long it takes your website to load on a 56KBPS modem. If the site doesn’t load quickly, your prospective customer will disappear and will go looking for your competitor. The aim of your website is to generate more sales leads for your Antares business, this means that your website has to stand out at all times.

Predictions for the Vending Industry

The most optimistic predictions for the vending industry hold that new technology will enable Antares operators to provide customers a higher quality of service and create new operating efficiencies that will improve profitability. This is an optimistic view when taking full account of today’s market realities.

In the meantime, technology presents operators a new set of challenges. New equipment and state of the art software demands a higher investment than was previously required. For an Antares vending operations to succeed, it needs a financial road map that will allow management to know if the business is operating profitably.

Higher capital outlays are needed

The capabilities that technology provides will strengthen the operator’s financial management, but at the same time, it will require a larger upfront investment.

Equipment and software are not the only areas where Antares vending operators need to invest periodically. As products, equipment and software become more advanced, the bar also rises for the level of training required. Operators need to invest in education and staff development as well.

Vending operators need a plan to incorporate new technology that will make them more efficient. While the ability to invest varies among individual Antares operators, they all still have the ability to identify financial benchmarks that will enable them to measure return on investment.

New tools are needed

Given the historically high levels of waste and shrinkage in the vending industry, due mainly to weak accountability systems, one can safely say that most operators will benefit from an investment in better information management systems.

In order to gather the financial information needed, an operator may need to have an employee who is trained in this area, possibly necessitating the need for additional investment in education. Once the information is gathered, the Antares operator will be in a better position to partner with customers.

Operators should always keep in mind that investing in the future is easier when the operator has an overall game plan. Vending operators need to invest not only capital, but also time in educating themselves about the ever changing industry.

Generic Technology Emerges

A multi-drop bus, MDB, is an internal communication protocol designed to ensure that coin mechanism, bill validators and cashless payment devices can be properly interfaced to an Antares vending machine controller without regard to proprietary manufacturing. The key benefit MDB brought is the fact that it is a generic technology.

MDB has often been compared to the plug and play standards common to generic computer component interfacing. One consistent standard covers bills, coins and credit/debit cards. MDB represents a movement toward open system architecture enabling a variety of peripheral devices to automatically become functional.

MDB supports peripheral devices

MDB is also known as the multi drop bus/ internal communication protocol (MDB/ICP). The MDB standard defines the serial interface equipment communicate identically. This system is designed to capture transactional data, including method of payment, purchase price and change paid. When combined with time of transactions and possibly column information, it can formulate a transaction record.

MDB is the brain in the coin mechanism

MDB enables the Antares vending machine controller to determine which coins the mechanism accepted; which bills were stored by the bill validator; and how much credit is available through a cashless payment device. It is a way for the vending machine controller (VMC) to direct the coin mechanism to pay out correct change. The MDB standard allows an Antares vending operator to select peripheral devices based on reliability, performance, features and price, as opposed to proprietary connectivity.

MBD allows instant status update

MBD will allow instantaneous updating of your Antares vending machine status (e.g., coinage in, change paid-out, products sold, etc.). The system protocol allows for the attachment of an audit device that, acting as a passive slave, receives information of all events that happen in the Antares vending machine through MDB.

Effectively, the VMC and peripheral units need to support the highest common level while maintaining backward integration of lower level device compatibility. The purpose of MDB is to ensure that the necessary functionality of any device on the bus (i.e., interfaced equipment) is consistent with the capabilities of the VMC.

Cold Drink Sales in Vending Recover

Cold drink sales posted recovery in 2004. This was driven largely by an industry wide move to bottles as opposed to cans. Cold drink sales posted a 1.3 point gain in 2004 following three consecutive years of decline.

Bottles as a percent of sales rose in double digits in 2004, the biggest 1 year gain since they came into the market in the late 1990s. While many Antares vending operators preferred working with cans and found them more profitable, most noted that the consumer strongly preferred bottles. Consumers preferred bottles because they were more fashionable and also resalable.

Another factor contributing to the sales gain was a slight increase in the number of cold drink machines, including Antares vending machines. The cold drink machine category was the only major product category in which machine placements grew instead of decreased in 2004. This was mainly due to the fact that most machines were provided by bottlers.

While the double digit increase in bottles helped drive overall cold beverage sales, Antares operators are constrained in their pricing due to competitive pressures. Small operators still sold more cans than bottles in 2004. The percentage of cans versus bottles bore a direct relationship to the size of the company, the larger the company, the more bottles they sold relative to cans.

Antares operators noted that supermarkets continued their long-held practice of using cold beverages as loss leaders and heavily advertised the low pricing. In many cases, operators could not buy these products for the same price they saw retailers advertising.

Cold cup beverage vending, despite being highly profitable, continued to decline in the recent past years. The larger operators also dominated what is left of the cold cup business.

Antares vending machines are manufactured to carry both cans and bottles. It is advisable to carry both of them in your operations, as they have both proved to be very profitable in vending operations.

Cold drink sales have been faring better in the recent past years, but vending operators have found it hard to keep pace with retail in the carbonated drink sector, mainly because bottles have been more established in retail outlets than in vending in recent years.

Achieving Excellence in your Vending Operations

Antares vending operators need to change their operating procedures, given the more competitive environment and the fact that the industry has moved beyond its maturity phase and is actually in a decline phase. To encompass a culture of excellence, the Antares operators will need to develop a strategic plan.

Customer loyalty is nebulous

Most of the common wisdom about customer loyalty is bunk. Among the weakest measurements being used are measurements for customer loyalty. High levels of reported customer satisfactions are often contradicted by falling per capita sales. Data can be skewed when survey questions are asked of only the location management and not the end consumer. Trouble can start for your Antares operations, if the right questions are not asked.

When questions are asked by any provider about price, quality, service and variety, it creates an expectation on the part of the respondent that better things are on the way. It shows that your intention is to improve satisfaction levels.

Customer fatigue

Customer fatigue is becoming an issue; they are sick and tired of all the cuddling and patronizing. The only cure for customer fatigue is to get to the point and provide that “perceived” value. It starts with being a good listener.

Also hard to quantify: intangible assets

Some assets of your Antares operations are not on the balance sheet. They may include brand capital, knowledge capital, company culture, long term relationships with clients. The one intangible asset that stands apart, making it the most valuable asset is management and front line employees who are happy. As an Antares operator you will need to take a meticulous inventory of your intangible assets and safeguard them well.

The right compensation formula

Straight commission compensation plans reward only dumping cash boxes, while straight salary plans yield complacency. Base salary guarantee is advocated, plus a commission on sales and a quarterly discretionary bonus based on profits. In most communities, the Antares operator offering the best compensation package has most of the good accounts. Additional investment in your people would be a more beneficial use of capital than other expenditures.

Internal and External Vending Machine Theft

The vending industry has gone through a number of changes throughout the years, but the one issue that hasn’t changed is machine security. Antares ending operators continue to face exposure to both internal and external machine theft.

Keyed entry is defined a couple of different ways and doesn’t necessarily require a key. A thief can gain entry with a key, copy of a key, or by picking the lock. Keyed entry is much harder to control than physical attack because it is harder to identify.

The main issue: unauthorized entry

The most obvious benefit of electronic locks is that they prevent unauthorized entry. With mechanical locks, employees have access to keys and can open a lock any time they want. There is no way that they can prevent unauthorized entry.

If someone drills through a lock and empties the Antares vending machine, it becomes obvious that theft has occurred. If a key is used to enter the Antares vending machine and only a portion of the profits are removed, it now becomes harder to tell that a theft has occurred.

With electronic locks, the lock cannot be accessed unless the keys are programmed to work during the specified time period. You can have electronic locks installed in your Antares vending machines, as a way to prevent internal theft.

A new tool in accountability

An effective electronic locking system in your Antares vending machines will provide the ability to not only audit every opening of the lock, but also every attempted opening. This will allow a manger to see immediately what impact this solution will have on his business. This is done by looking at all the unauthorized access that has been denied. This will also provide the tools necessary to eliminate even unsuccessful accesses that have been attempted.

An electronic locking system can provide the ability to evaluate collection efficiency by being able to look at each route and determine if it has been collected properly. The information provided in an audit report will determine if the route are being serviced in an efficient manner. An Antares vendor who is considering an electronic solution is encouraged to evaluate alternatives carefully and choose a product suited to their needs.

What Makes a Vend Product a Winner

In order for a product to be a good Antares vending machine seller, it has to have quality, name brand recognition, catchy packaging and a good profit margin. In other words the main points for product sales success are:

• a perceived value by the consumer
• a brand and name recognition
• a eye catching packaging
• a product quality and taste
• a adequate operator profit margin

Respondents have pinpointed various factors which tend to influence the customer’s perception of the value of vended products. They consider the public’s exposure to identical products in convenience stores and in other retail outlets as a basis for buying decisions from Antares vending machines as well as other vending machines. Consumers are oriented toward value, and that means that they compare pricing with what they see and buy in c-stores. The population in some accounts is more price conscious because of their wage levels, and this will affect what will sell well in your Antares vending machines.

Packaging plays a key role

Consumers’ perceptions of product value also are influenced by the package size. Many point to the success of the LSS products introduced by Frito Lay Inc and other suppliers, and the popularity of 20 ounce beverage bottles. Today’s vending customers are better educated, and it shows in their buying decisions. This is the reason why you need to be wise in the product selection for your Antares vending machines. If the quality is there, you will get repeat purchases.

Many vending machine purchases are made on impulse, so because of this the package must appeal to the customer. In addition to this, the brand must be one that is recognizable. The customers can’t pick up and handle the product before they buy, so the display of the product in your Antares vending machine must sell the product.

Vended product packaging must be colorful and unique, and the graphics must be positioned in such a way that the item can easily identified from the purchaser’s position in front of the Antares vending machine.

The package should work flawlessly during the dispensing process in the Antares vending machine. The bags should not hang up. The package should fit well into the glass front machine helix. All this can make the product in your vending machine a winner.

Factors that Influence a Location’s Profits

Once you have placed your Antares vending machines in the locations and start earning immediately from the locations, there might be a few problems that may arise. These are problems that can impact profitability. They can be divided into five major categories: sales, gross profits, operating costs (including commissions), net profits and return on investment (ROI).

Gross sales

Sales will vary directly with the population at the location. As the population increases or decreases, so will the sales in your Antares business. Since gross sales are the primary determinant of the bottom line, they must be monitored closely.

Gross profits

Gross profits equal sales less cost of goods sold. If the product costs increase and you cannot raise selling prices, then the gross profits from your location will fall. The same would apply if a dishonest route person doesn’t return all the cash that has been collected. The reported sales will appear to fall while the product costs will remain the same, and the gross profits will fall. Antares operators should understand that the gross profits that are reported as a percent of gross sales, does not tell the whole story.

Operating costs

The discussion of operating costs of your Antares business should be limited to only those costs that relate to the client. Typically, these are the direct, variable costs associated with servicing that client. The big ones include direct labor and vehicle, commissions, equipment depreciation, sales taxes, etc. One shouldn’t expect the location to vary the terms of the contract because the operator decided to overspend. As with gross profits, both the dollars and the percentages of your Antares business should be monitored.

Net profits

Net profits are what are left after deducting all the operating expenses. It should also be calculated in both dollars and percentages.

Return on investment

This is the net profit from the Antares vending location, annualized, expressed as a percentage of the capital investment in that location. If this location produces annual profits of $5,000 and requires a capital investment of $25,000, then that means that the ROI will be calculated as 20 percent.