We all know that quality vended hot beverages can be hard to get right and, sometimes, consumers can be disappointed. But when times are tight, it's especially important to make sure that all the boxes are ticked, for both clients and their consumers.

UK subsidiary of Euro­pean vending machine manufacturer Jofemar has launched a new, updated version of the company's best-selling merchandiser, the Vision. Introduced three years ago, the Vision was one of the first merchandisers on the market to use elevator delivery tech­nology. Jofemar has since gone on to patent its system under the brand names, SmartVend® and EasyFlex®.

The Paper Cup Recovery and Recycling Group has reported on a successful paper cup recycling trial in which virtually all the fibre from standard Polyethylene (PE) coated paper cups was successfully extracted and converted into high quality tissue fibre for use in products such as facial and toilet tissues.

Major European vending operator Selecta has secured a five-year contract to supply com­pre­hensive snack and beverage vending to Mecca Bingo.

Visitors to the Vending Paris show will have noticed that Azkoyen Industrial chose the event to reveal for the first time, the range of machines from Coffetek, acquired last year, and to launch the Vitale, the new range of hot beverage dispensers for the OCS market.

Mars Drinks has won a five-year contract to provide its Klix® drinks vending machines and Flavia® drink stations to O2's regional and local offices throughout the UK. In total, over 100 Mars Drinks machines will be installed across O2's UK sites, delivering over three million drinks to the company's employees every year.

Simmons and Simmons - a world class international law firm - was looking for an energy saving and environmentally friendly vending option to replace all existing machines in its London office. With almost 1,000 employees in its Citypoint Moorgate offices, Simmons & Simmons currently acts for a range of clients including Shell, UBS, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and the British Government.

Cadbury has been awarded the Best Green Packaging Award at this year's prestigious Green Awards for the launch of its unboxed ‘Eco-Eggs' range in Easter 2008. Cadbury was also shortlisted for Corporate Responsibility at the National Business Awards and was highly commended for Environmental Sustainability at last month's IGD Awards.

Aimia Foods, the independent supplier of hot and cold beverages, has won a prestigious award for the packaging of its Slazenger S1 hypotonic sports drink.

Scottish soft drinks giant A. G. Barr, manufacturer of brands like IRN-BRU, Tizer, D&B and Strathmore will be exhibiting for the first time at AVEX 2009.

Locwil Limited, based in Lanesfield, Wolverhampton, a well-known manufacturer of coin-operated products for washrooms, is celebrating its 25th birthday in its current form.

Soft drinks company Britvic has saved almost half a million road miles through streamlining its internal logistics and developing delivery partnerships with suppliers and customers.

Ribena, claimed to be the UK's No 1 juice drink, is extending its range and offering more consumer choice by launching Ribena Strawberry in a 500ml bottle which is made from 100 per cent recycled PET.

When it comes to public vending, you really do need a vending machine that can stand up not only to heavy use, but is built with anti-vandalism features that will protect it from theft and mistreatment.

So here we are at the start of another AVEX year. I think that, in a way, the show comes at a good time - injecting some added adrenalin into the veins of many who feel in need of a shot of something!

Leading soft drinks manufacturer Britvic has launched a new integrated marketing campaign urging consumers to ‘Save Tango' and its iconic attitude from disappearing from UK shores.

Designed with flexibility and versatility in mind, the NP3511-JP and NP3411-JB kiosk printers from DED both feature a large universal paper holder making them the ideal solution for almost any kiosk application from ATM's to ticketing and gaming to lottery and information kiosks. Special features on the NP3511-JP include a paper retraction presenter and a 200mm per second print speed, the NP3411-JB offers the advantage of a bezel and print speeds of 150mm per second.

Ribena, claimed to be the UK's No 1 juice drink, is extending its range and offering more consumer choice by launching Ribena Strawberry in a 500ml bottle which is made from 100 per cent recycled PET.

The new PolyMignon pressure reducing valve from Abbeychart controls hot or cold water and air pressures over a wide range on its own with a  single adjusting spring and no need for changing components.

During the last few weeks the focus of media reports on the financial markets crisis has very much turned to the plight of the SME sector. It has been claimed that the ‘rescue package' for banks has done little or nothing to facilitate the provision of funding to the smaller sized enterprise, which in many cases require immediate help to alleviate cash-flow pressure.

For many years, the British vending market was somewhat stagnant, with limited innovation. Restricted by a single, secure method of payment and reluctance on the behalf of the public to trust a high amount of cash with a machine which may not vend, kiosks in the past have been sidelined to the domain of confectionary at the local sports centre.

Instanta builds its boilers to high standards and they are designed to give many years of use. However, for those in hard water areas the company strongly recommends that they take steps to prevent the damage that can be caused by scale. Scale can block internal fittings, insulate water and temperature sensors, cause heating elements to fail and generally shorten the life of a boiler.

Bravilor Bonamat claims to be scaling new heights with the BSRS200 water filter system, designed to protect hot beverage equipment from the damaging effects of lime-scale build-up.

Marco Beverage Systems, one of Europe's leading manufacturers of water boilers and bulk coffee brewers, is distributing water treatment systems under its own brand.

It does not happen very often - but when it does you will be involved in a great deal of extra work! A Crypto Boil Notice means that you had to turn the POU water cooler off. Then, once the mains was declared Crypto free, you had to sanitise and replace the filter.

BRITA has further extended its professional range of filter solutions with the arrival of the new Purity C range of filters, which incorporates an option for all sizes of beverage vending machines. This new range combines ease of use, and flexibility with technology and recyclability, enabling users to consistently provide the best tasting drinks whilst protecting their investment.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has welcomed the government's emergency package in support of small firms, but is warning that more must be done to help them survive the economic downturn.

Food and drink vending has entered a new era thanks to a scheme from Heart of England fine foods (HEFF) which offers a healthy alternative to the standard vending experience.

With consumers' increasing awareness of health issues, obesity and boosting their immune systems, the market for healthy snacks and ingredients has flourished, and the import of dried vine fruit into the UK has seen a dramatic rise as a result.

What do we need to do to get the message of healthy vending across to the average vending machine user?

Let's take a moment and ask a few poignant questions:

1. Is it enough just to stick a cereal bar in a machine with a fresh juice carton and hope for the best?
2. Are the people that use vending machines aware that healthy items can be purchased from a vending machine?
3. Does the operator make the most of the area to promote the healthy vending option?

Wherever your football allegiance may lie (I tend to have two - White Hart Lane and Anfield - neither with warm feelings for Man U!) there's no arguing that Old Trafford is a good venue for a small-to-medium size exhibition. Rather like G-Mex was probably the best-ever venue for AVEX.

VeriFone Holdings has introduced a contactless version of its popular PINpad 1000SE, further expanding the industry's broadest line of contactless payment solutions, as well as unveiling SingleCI (Single Contactless Interface). This is a unifying programming interface with development tools that allows acquirers and developers to leverage existing contactless investments, adapt to future needs, and take advantage of the company's entire contactless portfolio. SingleCI is compatible with today's industry-leading contactless interfaces.

Monitoring inventory storage conditions can now be easier with new Dickson multi-feature, digital display Temperature & Humidity Data Loggers with both push-to-start and push-to-stop functions. Data recording is clean and easy-to-read and a temperature-only version is also available.

The Chiller from Bravilor Bonamat serves fresh, cold and - thanks to the unique membrane filter - pure water. User friendly and low maintenance, its direct connection to the mains water supply eliminates the need for manoeuvring heavy water bottles! This also saves on storage space.

While growth in the bottled water market appears to have come to a halt, the leading charity water brand, Thirsty Planet, is enjoying year-on-year volume sales that have more than trebled (manufacturer's estimate July 2008).

With its CH1000 combined water boiler and cooler, Instanta aims to cater for everybody's taste, and put an end to the inconvenience of bottled water at the same time.

Amidst recent publicity surrounding the environmental damage caused by transporting bottled water round the country, comes a new product idea from John Artis that is both environmentally sound and presents an added value opportunity. Indro is a stylish, refillable water bottle with a blue wired cap that looks extremely elegant and may readily be overprinted with a name and logo.

The Wottle environmentally-friendly, refillable water bottle has been designed exclusively by Orla Kiely for Brita. The 500ml Wottle features Orla Kiely's signature Stem design, a rubber finger grip that can be adapted for portability and is perfectly proportioned to carry around. Simply fill and refill with fresh water and enjoy the great taste in good taste.

The City Of Toronto's recent decision to ban the sale and provision of bottled water in city buildings and facilities could prove a real wake-up call for UK operators, according to UK machine manufacturer, Westomatic. Like a growing number of public organizations, the City Council is desperately keen to be environmentally responsible but is equally committed to ensuring wider public access to filtered and purified tap water in all its city buildings and facilities.

Based upon the success of AVEX 2007, the European Point-of-use Drinking Water Association (EPDWA) is to partner the Automatic Vending Association (AVA) again at AVEX 2009, (NEC, June 10th and 11th) which will include the latest and best that the water and vending industries have to offer.

Themed ‘Better, Smarter, Greener', the next EurOps© conference (taking place in Berlin on March 26th and 27th) will be the apex of the European Vending Association's 2009 agenda.

The European Vending Association (EVA) was outraged by recent statements from European Agriculture Commissioner Fischer Boel suggesting to ‘kick out vending machines' (from schools) and replace them by machines with fruit and vegetables. Her com­mentary was made during the School Fruit Scheme before some 300 participants and many hundreds of viewers of the Internet stream.