Hot Food Vending
for a vending machine only as the main mechanism for workers’ meal provision.” Leading UK automated hot food
catering service Bon Appetit has identified the National Health Service as particularly in need of a round-the- clock canteen solution. “Our key target is the NHS where we currently service 25 hospitals,” said Bon Appetit founder Keith Pordum. “There are 480 hospitals in England alone that could potentially use our 24 hour service to feed their doctors, nurses and visitors. We deliver real value and make a difference to UK businesses as they strive to be more effective and efficient by cutting costs and improving employee morale and productivity.” Similarly, vending machine supplier Feast Point works with a number of NHS Trusts and blue chip corporate clients to provide a solution to their individual catering requirements. “In the current economic climate, the need to reduce the opening hours of a traditional manned service has become a necessity for a number of firms, and Feast Point food dispensers offer the opportunity to provide a 24/7 automated catering service without the overhead of staff salaries,” said a company spokesperson. Feast Point further tailors the service for customers by ensuring that its menus are adapted to the requirements of each individual site, meaning it can offer breakfasts, full meals or quick snacks depending on the needs of the user. Although Bon Appetit is arguably the UK’s best known hot food
vending outlet, across the pond, EatWave is the US vending industry’s answer to canteen replacement. Following its launch at the annual NAMA (National Automatic Merchandising Association) convention in Chicago, where it won the Innovation of the Year Award for new vending machinery, founders O’Neil Sawh and Mark Hoyt adapted the machine’s patented design to allow the dispensing of cold food, snack, and drink items as well as hot food. The ‘all-in-one’ hot and cold food vending machine that resulted allows operators to offer customers a range of catering options, including hot food (cooked to order), cold food, snacks and drinks.
Spanish vending machine manufacturer Jofemar’s automatic refrigerated vending machine offers a similar service, incorporating a heating module into an automatic refrigerated vending machine, and thereby allowing the machines to dispense hot ready meals in addition to soft drinks and refrigerated products. The Gourmet hot food vending machine provides customers with a cost effective, space-saving catering solution that retails hot food alongside salads, cold dishes, snacks and desserts, all from one machine.
What’s more, with the sophisticated ancillary services now available alongside vending machines such as these, there is very little that a traditional staffed canteen can provide that a vending outlet can’t. Advanced stock control and sales management programs allow operators to remotely keep track of which products are selling well, as well as identify and fix machine issues. Built-in CCTV prevents theft and vandalism. Payment systems
that incorporate cashless and contactless payment alongside coin and note validators allow the maximum number of completed purchases. Running a traditional, staffed cafeteria can be a drain on resources
at best, and completely unsustainable at worst, especially for smaller and medium sized businesses. Hot food vending machines, whether stand-alone or as an out-of hours alternative for when the cafeteria is closed, can be an ideal solution. The market scope for hot food vending can be extended to schools, universities, motorway services and hotel lobbies – anywhere there is demand for hot meals out of hours. With a consumer base that is increasingly comfortable with automation and machine services, it is safe to say that hot food vending machines will be a progressively more common sight in the future.
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES All over the world, manufacturers and entrepreneurs have been coming up with weird and wonderful ideas for hot food vending machines. Vending International had a look at some of the most innovative hot food machines around today... In Australia, Perth-based Hot Chips Company claims it is
behind Australia's first commercial rollout of hot chip vending machines (in the UK we just call these chips). “Its robotic technology delivers a cup of hot chips cooked in approximately two minutes to the user, who puts their funds in the front of the machine and gets a cup delivered through a hatch,” CEO Peter Malone told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Originally designed and manufactured in Northern Italy, Let’s
Pizza produces fresh pizza using quality ingredients, kneading dough, adding toppings, and baking. Cooked to perfection in less than three minutes, Let’s Pizza vending machine is already a major success in Italy
and is setting its sights on the UK.
Dutch fast food chain FEBO is
known for its ‘krokets’ – small deep-fried rolls filled with creamy spiced vegetables and/or meat – and for its ‘walk-up’ automatic format, which it launched in
Amsterdam way back in 1941! Products are stored and sold hot from small compartments of a vending machine.
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