Carl Bjorkstrand, Managing Director of N & W Global Vending UK, has been elected to the AVA Board after a close fought election, while Andy Porter, Managing Director of Crane Merchandising Systems Europe, was the unanimous choice of the AVA Board for the role of Vice Chairman for 2008/2009.

The gap is closing between vending and the high street beverage service, partly thanks to packaging specialist Huhtamaki and its new 12oz paper-vending cup. High street service can now be mirrored in the vending sector with the introduction of this new size, which allows customers to upsize their choice of hot drink without having to leave their building. Ideal for vending operators as well as convenience stores, service stations, amusement parks and sports stadia, the new 12oz paper vending cup is perfect for those wishing to consume drinks at their desk or while on-the-move. The cup can even be fitted with a tight fitting sip-thru lid to help prevent spillages.

Vending supplies company Abbeychart of Faringdon, Oxon, recently ran a highly successful clients and families day out on the North Yorkshire Moors Steam Railway on a train pulled by company founder and Group Chairman Peter Best's own locomotive, with the dual aim of raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and giving good fun to over 200 guests.

The Kenco Coffee Company has expanded its partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. By the end of 2008 this will see 75 per cent of the beans for its entire freeze-dried coffee range sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM farms.

UK vending services provider Selecta has given its healthy vending programme, which offers snacks and beverages meeting specific ‘good-for-you' guidelines, a new name and a fresh look.

AVEX 2009, the International Vending and Water Exhibition, has launched a dedicated website - http://www.avex2009.co.uk/ - packed full of information about the exhibition to be held on 10th and 11th June 2009 at the NEC, Birmingham.

A strong ethical trading policy and clear commitment to excellent client service have contributed to steadily increasing revenues and profits for the Vendia Group during 2007, securing its claim as the UK's fourth largest vending company.

KioskCom Self Service Expo Europe (October 1st and 2nd 2008, at Olympia), has already filled two-thirds of the available stand space and, as event director, Phil Hunter, explains, has quickly become a significant European business portal for access to the latest in time-saving, self-service technology.

Lyme Regis Fine Foods, a division of fast-growing snack group Glisten plc, has created a significant new fruit snacking brand with the re-launch of its unique Fruitus range, which has been extended and re-packaged to consolidate its position and provide a strong platform for future growth and brand development.

The Kenco Coffee Company has announced that, from last month, it is sourcing its extensive range of Suchard Hot Chocolate flavour products to cocoa from Rainforest Alliance Certified^TM farms. This major move effects Kenco In-Cup, Kenco Singles, Kenco FreshSeal, Kenco Vending, Kenco Sachets and Kenco ancillary Hot Chocolate flavour products, all marketed under the brand name Suchard.

Bunzl Catering Supplies, a division of Bunzl HoReCa, has launched the Greenlineplus ecological cleaning product range by Delphis Eco to the foodservice sector.

Omron Electronic Components is now offering its versatile touch sensor technology in fully custom form, allowing the creation of rotary and linear slider controls as well as simple on-off switches. The announcement further enhances the versatility of its already flexible touch control technology that allows a non-conducting surface of any shape to be used as an electrical control.

Grove Fresh, the UK's leading organic juice brand, is to introduce single-serving organic smoothies exclusively for the foodservice sector.

Driver safety has risen to the top of the list for Vendia company VMI this spring, conscious of the advent of the Corporate Manslaughter legislation in April (2008) that puts an extra onus of responsibility onto employers, especially those safeguarding the welfare of workers on the road.

2008 has so far proved to be a successful year for packaging manufacturer Huhtamaki. The Gosport-based manufacturer has scooped several awards for its innovations - rewarding the importance placed on developing foodservice disposables which meet market demands.

In the coming weeks, UK and Irish shoppers will be able to benefit from a robotically operated DVD vending concept housed in local convenience stores, including Tesco, Centra and Applegreen which offers users touch-screen access to a range of new release movies.

Ten of the leading lights in the UK vending industry have come together in this issue of Vending International to launch a new initiative, ‘The Vending Star Chamber', which I believe to be unique to VI in the history of UK vending.

As in every other area of out of home eating, snacking is now being influenced by the growing number of health conscious consumers. However, it is important to remember that customers want a choice, and ‘indulgent' snacks are still big business for vendors. In between the two are ‘permissible' treats which give people the feeling of indulgence but aren't as heavy on the calories, thereby promoting the ‘feel good' factor without the guilt.

Brakes currently offers 12 fruit and nut snack bags which are rich in vitamins and minerals, and often low in calories. Ideal for children and adults they are perfect products for vending machines.

The relaunch of the McCoy's Tortillas range, a selection of tasty bagged snacks, has been announced by United Biscuits (UBUK). McCoy's Tortillas come in two hunger busting flavours - Hot Chilli and Nacho Cheese.

Launched in the UK just five years ago, the Jack Link's meat snack range has been quick to establish itself as a quality, everyday alternative to traditional savoury snacks.

"When it comes to snack and confectionery vending, the end-user can be a discerning creature", claims Mike Kane, Sales and Marketing Director at N&W.

A new coffee and doughnut concept from Country Choice offers a payback period of as little as just three months, allowing operators to capitalise both on the success of the £1.3 billion hot beverages market plus the one in three adults who regularly buy doughnuts.

When you are looking to site a snack vendor outdoors, it has to be a special machine - one that will not only take petty vandalism in its stride, but will also cope well with the great British climate - like the SU2020SO outdoor snack and confectionery merchandiser from Sielaff.

Vision, the glass-fronted merchandiser from Jofemar, has eschewed traditional spiral dispense in favour of a patented elevator delivery system, which the company is calling SmartVend®.

This month sees the launch of the Vending Star Chamber - a new initiative from Vending International designed to create a platform upon which a carefully selected and representative group of ten leaders from the vending industry will be invited to comment on important matters of the day to the vending industry, its specifiers and customers.

I am contributing to the discussion on ‘AVEX 2009 and Beyond' as Chairman of the AVA. AVEX successfully fills the role of essential showcase for the UK vending industry ... THE market place where the World of Vending comes together to celebrate achievements to date and discuss future development. AVEX has maintained its position as one of Europe's premier vending exhibitions by adapting to changing market needs and this approach must guide 2009 and beyond.

Here at N&W we are already looking forward to AVEX with a mixture of eager anticipation and trepidation.

There are three main groups of exhibitors at AVEX, machine manufacturers, component suppliers and ingredients suppliers. Some 15 years ago when I went to my first show, a large proportion of each group were UK based and UK manufactured. Consequently the show was a showcase for the UK vending industry and what we had to offer the European market.

Kraft Foods, parent company of the Kenco Coffee Company, is very supportive of the planned changes made for AVEX for 2009, but before I go further I should declare we are members of the organising committee! Kraft Foods agreed to be a member of the committee in order to help support positive change for this important UK- based international vending exhibition. We believe the exhibition is unique as the only exhibition to attract both operators and specificiers.

Like a number of people in our industry I have become somewhat uncomfortable in recent years at the high level of investment required to exhibit at AVEX, especially if you happen to be an equipment supplier needing a relatively large stand and a significant number of people to manage it.

If my memory serves me correctly it was, I believe, the late, great Sir John Harvey-Jones who once said, "There is only one certainty in business and that is change. And if you don't change you die."

When I took over as Chairman of the AVA in 2006, the AVEX show for 2007 was already booked to return to Earls Court, but in a different format to previous shows. In order to keep overall costs to a minimum, the show was to include a section devoted to the water cooler industry plus a series of workshops and a conference with well-known people from the industry talking on several topics. The organisers tried hard to persuade exhibitors away from building large, lavish stands in favour of smaller affairs and to keep exhibitor costs down.

I used to think the "Starchamber" was somewhere you went to be disciplined or pillared until John Sewell invited me to be regular contributor to his new feature in Vending International magazine - I am, of course, highly delighted and indeed honoured to have an opportunity to have a say on hopefully what we will be a wide variety of industry issues.

‘Are you going to exhibit at AVEX?' is a question that I get asked all of the time and that's been the case for many years. The relative value of trade shows in general and AVEX in particular remains one of the most emotive topics in the industry. The smaller NIVEX event has become really popular in the last couple of years and now the question is whether there is room for both shows?

By any measure, the AVEX series of exhibitions has been a huge success. We should all be eternally grateful to Ian Plummer whose initiative it was, during his outstanding period as AVA Chairman in 1981/83 to have the foresight to restart the exhibitions. These had been organised by AVA in the past starting at Grosvenor House in 1969.They continued until the ill-fated exhibition at Olympia in 1975.

Water is a key ingredient among today's health conscious population. Experts are constantly reminding us of the benefits of drinking plenty of water to help our bodies stay fit and our minds alert. While tap water is perfectly safe to drink, it doesn't always look, taste or smell good. Good quality filtered water is not only a commercial potential as a saleable cold vended drink, but also is the main ingredient in hot vended drinks.

Everpure, LLC, a leading manufacturer of water filtration systems to the foodservice industry, has introduced a new water filter family, named Claris.

Allpure Filters, now located in Ash Vale, Surrey, the sole approved European distributor for the Omnipure water filter range, also stocks a variety of associated products including UV systems, filter housings, pressure reducing vValves, Invensys (Eaton) solenoid valves, waterblocks, Opella saddle valves, John Guest fittings and tubing, brass and plastic fittings, bespoke hoses, high food grade tubing and associated products for use in the vending and POU cooler markets.

Following a growing amount of interest from readers in recent weeks about the Vending 21 Club, Vending International asked its Chairman Eddie Smith to explain where the organisation comes from and what it is all about. It seems that Vending International was there from the start!

The government's standards for school lunches, which include vended items sold at lunch, were introduced in September 2006, and this was followed by food based standards for other school food (covering the full days vending provision) from September 2007. Further nutrient standards for school lunches will also be introduced in September 2008 for primary schools and September 2009 for secondaries.

The EVA has proudly announced that it was selected to take a stand during the European Commission's 2008 Green Week. This event, ‘Only one Earth', took place in Brussels during the first week of June, and was aimed at taking a closer look at the sustainable use of natural resources, focusing on waste management, sustainable consumption and production.

Set up in Milan last year, the European Operators' Forum recently held its third meeting. The venue was Paris where independent operators from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and across Europe met once again, maintaining for the now traditional friendly and interesting exchanges on vending in Europe.

The latest version of the jointly supported standard developed by the EVA and NAMA, the EVA-DTS, is now available for download from www.vending-europe.eu. The protocol establishes a dialogue between the machine and the operator and allows for real time machine management. The main innovations regard mixed payment (part cash, part cashless), discounts and surcharges.

Most operators recognize the importance of planograms and working with the right brands when it comes to snack and confectionery vending, but selection of the right equipment and refrigeration system can make all the difference in terms of product quality and levels of customer satisfaction.