AVA LIVE LET’S WORK TOGETHER
The CEO of National Automatic Merchandising Association in the Unitied States (NAMA) addressed the AVA Live Leadership Symposium on what the UK and US have in common and how the two bodies could work together for the common good. Carla Balakgie told delegates that the American body had rebranded how it defines the industry as convenience services having moved beyond vending and onto other avenues such as unattended retail and new forms of coffee service. Currently NAMA has 1,000 members who work in vending; coffee, tea and water (CTW), micromarkets and recently a new edition of pantry – where employers opt to offer fresh food in a bid to keep staff happy and at the same time satisfy a demand for healthier alternatives. The combined channels account for under one per cent of the US GDP – equivalent to $25 billion – employ 140,000
people and pay $7.2 billion in wages. Of all the revenue, 76 per cent comes from vending, but this is in decline while there is an upsurge in micromarkets which registered astronomical growth of 154 per cent between 2014 and 2016. Ms Balakgie said the American and UK
markets shared much in common in the areas of industry growth, coffee premiumisation, healthier consumer preferences, sustainability with the focus on single use plastics and also new refrigerants; and industry consolidation. She revealed that the UK was leading the way in some areas including in the fields of coffee premiumisation and healthier preferences and NAMA was keen to learn from the UK about how to grow these areas in the US. “We share the same issues. The things you solve for, we solve for so hopefully together we can learn from one another. Ms Balakgie said she believed there was a bright future for the industry driven by
consumer demand for access to a bigger footprint of consumer services available 24/7. With this in mind she urged delegates to think about the next step. “Convenience services is a big umbrella, so we can hang a lot under it. We invented unattended retail – that’s what vending is. We are small drop distribution experts with trucks on the road delivering things every day just like Amazon. You have the capacity. What else can you provide?”
Carla Balakgie
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