Consumers are possibly being more choosy with how they spend their cash, and are opting to buy premium quality, café style drinks at low prices from a vending machine, in preference to the high street coffee shops.
Despite the economic downturn, this is a real shot in the arm for vending, especially at a time when major coffee chains are struggling.
Westomatic Vending Services Ltd, a leading UK vending machine manufacturer has reported a sharp rise in the sales of its Prelude table top hot beverage machine, which it somewhat surprisingly attributes in part to the economic downturn.
Westomatic's Marketing Manager, Mark Rhodes explains: "Due to the current economic situation, many office workers appear to be shunning their daily outing to the local coffee shop in favour of ‘stay-in' office coffee. Many of our larger customers report an increase in sales of Prelude table top machines, with speciality drinks such as latte, mochaccino and cappuccino, proving especially popular." Mark continues: "An in-house table top machine not only offers premium tasting drinks at a fraction of the cost, compared to the high street, but with many businesses cutting back on staff during the recession, workers simply don't have time to go out for coffee and so are making the most of in-house options. Mark says: "It could be that table top machines are challenging both the habitual migration to the high street coffee shop, and also traditional large vending machines, as we've noticed a trend in modern city-based workplaces away from large machines towards our small table top model."
Westomatic has also seen a rise in interest in its Coffee Tower concept, a custom-built unit that houses the Prelude table top machine and takes it into a new retail setting. According to Mark, the success of this could also be due in part to the recession: "Shoppers and commuters are possibly being more choosy with how they spend their cash, and are opting to buy premium quality, café style drinks at low prices from a vending machine, in preference to the high street coffee shops."
Mark concludes: "Despite the economic downturn, this is a real shot in the arm for vending, especially at a time when high street coffee chains such as Coffee Republic and Starbucks are struggling."
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