As anybody with a modicum of common sense knows every boom is followed by a bust. It is the free enterprise way of clearing up the debris caused by the excesses of the boom. Surely nobody believed that property prices could keep going up at double digit numbers, indefinitely. The banks in particular play their part in all of this, as during the boom periods they have lots of money and loan it out on more and more risky ventures. You could describe their actions as, at the least, irresponsible - but for me it is sheer greed. The problem is that eventually the bust happens, as of now, and we are all left to pick up the pieces and pay the price with a recession.

In a recession people have less money to spend. They see their council tax, utility bills, mortgages and this time around fuel and food costs increase. But every dark cloud has a silver lining and so all of this might help us.

My father told me that there were three things people will always do, whatever the state of the economy; they will need to eat, drink and be entertained. Well the vending industry is involved in the first two, which is promising and with a very efficient grapevine you could say we were in the entertainment bit as well.

Of course, we cannot be immune to the downturn as we are seeing customers reduce head counts, introduce short time working and some go out of business. But is there not an opportunity to win back, as our customers, those people who now pick up their cup of coffee from either the coffee shop or convenience store on their way to work? These people are probably spending £10 a week, on which we could show them a good saving. It does of course mean that the drink quality has to be good and the machine always in service. Some of our prospective or ex customers would question whether we always deliver on these two criteria.

One thing that is to be avoided in a downturn is for the Finance Department to come up with a ‘blue sky' forecast, which is totally dependent on a Jack the Ripper style cost slashing programme. It will not work. You just have to face up to two or three years of lower sales and profits and get on with it.

You will need to reduce overheads wherever possible and make the worst people redundant. You know who the malingerers are, Mr Moaner, Miss Slow Coach and Ms Sick Note, but make sure you look after the good people. Continue paying them their bonuses and keep upgrading their skills. You will be rewarded with loyalty and the best possible performance from them during this difficult period. There is no magic pill in a recession you just have to grind it out and stick with the strategy that brought success in the past.

Quality of service and of food and beverages should not be compromised, however tempting it might be.

Customers will need more attention than ever before and a lot of wearing out of shoe leather visiting them will pay dividends, listening to their views and expectations. The sales staff will really earn their money and this is one area that the Finance Department's job slashing programme should be kept well away from.

It is very important, in a recession, to pay even closer attention to the control of cash and near cash such as ingredients. In recessions fraud becomes more prevalent, as some employees finances get stretched. You need to be very vigilant as most fraud is committed by long serving employees. It is usually a person you and everybody else trusted implicitly and would have not thought capable of such an act.

Trading in a recession is not much fun, but I believe the vending industry is better placed to see its way through the current recession than it was in 1991. Most companies are by and large better managed these days. If there are going to be any victims then more than likely they were in trouble before the recession began and heavily borrowed.

One thing is for sure. We do not have the problems of the high street retailers. Peter Hogsted of Ikea commented recently on the carnage on the high street and said that, from their point of view, it was unfortunate that ‘you can't eat a sofa'. So at least we do not have his problem.

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