Since then fuel and commodity prices have soared, credit has been harder to obtain and the study of macro economics has become as concerning as looking up your medical symptoms on the web, all roads appear to lead to tragedy.

But there is evidence that vending can be different. The Italian economy, by most indicators, has been in recession for about five years, during which time the Italian vending industry has had one of its strongest ever periods. As onsite catering became more and more uneconomic, Italian vending operators stepped in to provide automated solutions which delivered comparable quality. The growth of tabletops and hot drinks machines in a market with some of the most demanding consumers is equally remarkable. It has been achieved by delivering quality to the consumer.

As conditions get tougher every company has to decide its own strategy. MEI is fortunate. Our size and global footprint, combined with the breadth of industries we serve, mean that we can offset risks, some areas of the business will grow as other stall. But we are not immune.

One area where we are feeling pressure is component pricing. MEI is committed to leading the way with environmentally friendly solutions and there are often cost implications in this approach, but we feel we have to stick to what we believe.

Similarly, we are under pressure in other areas such as the price of plastics, which are impacted by oil prices. So our commercial team has had to work incredibly hard in recent years to minimize the impact of increased costs on our own prices.

One tactic they have employed is to fix long-term pricing often over several years so that we stabilize our build costs.

We are getting more and more requests from our customers to do the same. We are also paying close attention to the financial health of our suppliers. The unfortunate effect of tight trading conditions is that it is likely that some companies cannot cope. Consistent late deliveries or quality issues are often early indicators that a supplier is struggling, so we ensure that we recognize any suppliers that may be at risk and put in place contingency plans should the worst happen.

For our customers as well as minimizing the impact of increases in our costs we are also focussed on the areas that we think will benefit them most.

For example if there is a problem with the payment system on the machine an engineer normally has to go out. Whereas before, the cost of the engineer's time was probably the biggest factor, today the cost of fuel to service that machine has to be taken into account. We are, therefore, committed to providing the most reliable products in the market.

A lot of us have been through these sorts of conditions before and history proves vending to be a resilient industry, but I do have one concern. If we react by cutting costs too deeply and compromising quality it may take the consumer a long time to forgive us.

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