When cash is tight, companies with vending offers will be tempted, no doubt, to extend the leases of their machines, rather than renew. However, a review of the existing machines' power consumption, compared with the energy efficiency inbuilt in the latest technology, will demonstrate that renewing can deliver a real fiscal saving - not to mention a significant environmental benefit.

The real challenge facing us now is in convincing the consumer that a drink from an ‘unattended point of sale' machine is every bit as good - at only half the price - as a branded High Street coffee. I believe that we should see this ‘challenge' as a gilt-edged opportunity, because, as ‘the crunch' bites harder, consumers will come to believe that a £2 drink from a coffee shop is a luxury too far.

Notice I say ‘unattended point of sale'. To date, it takes something like a tabletop out of home machine, our own Kobalto for example, to duplicate the High Street coffee feel in the at-work environment. Traditional free-standing machines just aren't perceived as being good enough, even though we in the business know that they are. We really need to challenge those perceptions and have a PR job on our hands!

Our customers will be less inclined to offer staff drinks on a free-of-charge basis. They can save money by investing in a cashless payment system now. In many cases, we're talking less money than a new coin changer! The fact that users preload the card or key helps with the operator's cashflow. Smart customers will be able to soften the blow of removing free drinks provision by using the cashless system to give a fixed number of free drinks per day - and then charging after that.

As manufacturers, we can help by offering more reliable machines that reduce operating costs, and we can cut on-site operator time by designing machines that are even easier to clean and fill.

Businesses these days are full of people who have not experienced a recession before and if that is where our economy is headed, there'll be no substitute for an experienced manager. In my view, the trick is to continue to give first-class customer service whilst keeping very strict control over costs. Most of us have shaped our organisations to carry very little fat. However, it is those companies that are willing to implement creative economies that tend to do well in difficult times. For example, we can all take simple measures, like installing zoneal lighting, movement detectors and turning off those computers that are habitually on standby all night...

My advice is simple: ‘pursue every opportunity' and think laterally.

Many companies could benefit from having a small tabletop machine in the reception area, as well as the main vending machine in the office. Snack machines are now very competitively priced and the low-cost snack (healthy or not) will always be fairly recession proof.

Another opportunity that may be worth considering is in the area of food provision. In some parts of Europe, there has been a fantastic growth in vending operators providing food.

To conclude, keep calm, keep tight control of costs, be innovative internally and externally and, most of all, make the most of all the opportunities that come your way.

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