01-03-2006 - Vendia: "giving people a healthier option can work - bit it's not easy"
Mike Potts, CEO of Vendia (formerly Benchmark Vending), explains how his company is working with suppliers and customers to come up with healthy vending solutions that suit everyone’s needs.
Vending and health – not two words that often go hand in hand. In fact, over the last year, vending has come under some criticism from all quarters with a blanket ban on vending in schools hovering over us all.
For the past 18-months, Vendia has been concentrating on developing and promoting our Healthy Options Range: a range of healthy alternatives to fizzy drinks, crisps and chocolate, such as water, fruit juices, milk products, dried fruit, low-fat crisps, and cereal bars.
We have actually worked in the area of healthy vending for the past five years – but it is only recently that the subject has come under increasing scrutiny. It was with this in mind that we decided to actively brand our range of healthy products and proactively sell this to our customers.
The first area where we rolled out the Healthy Options Range was Central London where we already have a strong customer base – predominantly in large blue-chip companies. In several of these companies we installed a total of 173 branded Healthy Options Machines.
The best selling product turned out to be Orange Juice – generating 80% of the margin generated by Coca Cola in the same time period. The best selling cereal bars were Seeds of Change and Go Ahead fruit slices. In fact Seeds of Change generated 40% of the margin generated by Kit Kat in the same time.
Our experience shows that Healthy Options can (and do) sell at a similar price and gross margin as “traditional” vending products – meaning no significant loss of profit for us as a vending company and no increase in price for the consumer. In Vendia’s experience, it is personal choice and not price, swaying opinion over what to buy.
During the trial period with the Healthy Options Range in Central London the total sales of the range was about 15% of the total sales of all confectionery, cans and snacks.
However, our experience outside of Central London offices did not match our success in the city! While the prices and margins were similar, the volumes of Healthy Options sold were much lower. For example, over the same 18 month period, our North West England company, VMI, experienced only 2.7% of total sales on their Healthy Options Range. We are not sure of the reasons for this strong variation in results, but perhaps the socio-economic profile of the customer base – more industrial locations, more male consumers, less wealthy consumers – was playing a role, as many other variables were constant.
Vendia’s experience supports the view that selling Healthy Options is not as easy as some commentators would have us believe. Some consumers will choose Healthy products voluntarily but others will clearly need educating over a longer period of time if habits are to change.
This data, even with its variations in and outside London, is all positive news and the initial response from customers has been fantastic!
Whilst the primary responsibility for educating the population cannot fall on the shoulders of the vending industry, at Vendia we believe we should do what we can. In this context, Vendia has worked particularly closely with the Automatic Vending Association (AVA) and the Food Standards Agency to help develop the “Educated Choice Initiative”, a three-point plan for AVA operator members to ensure vending plays a positive role in providing educated choice in food and drink vending in secondary schools.
In summary, our view is that vending’s role is to be proactive where possible in helping to educate consumers, and to provide a choice of products where there is adequate demand to justify doing so – we can do no more.
Vendia UK Ltd is one of the largest beverage and snack vending companies in the UK. It is part of the international Vendia Group which is based in Holland and also has vending operations in France.
Vendia’s unique strength is its network of strong local operating companies and management teams, who leverage their regional knowledge and experience to deliver better products and services, whatever the required vending package. Vendia companies have particularly strong knowledge and experience in five market sectors: Leisure, Business, Education, Public Service and Retail.
The company is based at:
17 Rufus Business Centre
Ravensbury Terrace
London
SW18 4RL
United Kingdom
T : +44 (0) 20 8879 8354
F : +44 (0) 870 762 8985
www.vendia-group.com
info@vendia-group.com