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EW S Industry Updates ry Update s


Snack-in-the-Box welcomes first new franchisee


Vending solutions and ‘food-on-the-go’ company,Montagu Group, which acquired Snack-in-the Box (SITB) last month as part takeover of Uvenco, is welcoming SITB’s first new franchisee since the acquisition. Alex Hall has taken over the Leeds area, due to the retirement of the former franchisee.


rt of its


Montagu Group, which has grown significantly since its inception in 2017, bought the trade and assets of three businesses fromAIM listed Uvenco UK PLC in June 2018; namely


Uvenco Vending, Snack- in-the-Box and


Drinkmaster. The group


operates more than 25,000 unique points of sale across Britain, the majority of which are vending machines.


franchisees who provide honesty boxes and vending machines SITB is operating successfully and as new owners, we saw no need to make any major changes to the business.


Mark Stone, COO of Montagu Group, comments: “SITB added a new complementary area for Montagu Group, following the acquisition. As a UK-wide franchise operation, run through local ,


“Alex is a great addition to our franchised network and his background will no doubt help him with the key area of business development.Over the next few weeks the SITB team will be working closely with Alex in order to hand over the existing client base and we will then continue to support Alex to ensure that his business plan for the franchise is met.”


delighted to welco Sean Cleveland,


sales director for SITB, explains: me Alex to the SITB team. He ta


kes over a “We are


successful established business with an existing client base of more than 160 vending customers, across the Leeds area, covering Pudsey, Leeds city centre, Gildersome,Morley and Batley.


“Coming from a marketing background, having previously worked for a large ‘blue chip’ company, Alex decided to make a change and run a business for himself. He wanted something that was simple, with a proven track-record and ideally something that didn’t require any real technical expertise.”


Specialist vending-solutions company,Montagu Group, is owned by the Hutchinson family and has completed a number of major acquisitions since i ts inception in 2017 turning ov er nearly £50 million per annu m and employing 600 people .


easyCoffffee gets £10million boost easyCoff


ffee’s plan to roll out 800 vending machines nationally in the next year has been given a boo st following a £10 millio n investment by Stellar AssetManagement. The c ffoffee chain – part of the ‘easy’ family of brands that includes easyJet – has enjoyed rapid growth since it launched in 2016 and recently installed its 50th vending machine in the market. It also served ffee in its eight coff


its millionth cup of coff ffee stores.


This capital injection from estate and succession planning specialist Stellar Asset Management more than triples the amount secured in earlier capital raising rounds, which resulted in £3 million of investments in the company by investors such as Saudi investment group Al-Dhowayan.


easyCoffff ee will be available to inves tors through Stellar’s ESP Growth Portfolio Service – a discretionary managed portfolio investing in a diversified range of qualifying business activities. easyCoffff ee CEO, Nathan Lowry, commented: “We are excited to now move forward with our ambitious growth plans, thanks significant investment by Stellar Asset Management.” dded: “Vending is a highly profitable business driven by brand recognition. This investment is an endorsement that the easyCoffffee brand, like its sister brand easyJet, stands for a quality product and service at a value price.”


He a to this


Jonathan Gain, of Stellar, said: “Stellar is delighted with this deal, we are committed to fofffering our investors maximum investment diversification and easyCoffffee will sit alongside our other qualifying business activities including: commercial forestry and farming; residential and commercial development; renewable energy; and managing and operating hotels.We are looking forward to working with Nathan and the team and the exciting growth opportunities in this market.”


Zero sugar level implemented on hot drinksmachines The European VendingMachineManufacturers Association


(EVMMA), a group within the European Vending and Coff VA) representing 20machinemanufacturers, has


ffee Association (EVA


agreed to set a zero-sugar level on hot drinksmachines as standard. This means all hot drinks vending machines will be configured as standard in the factory with no added sugar, unless a specific request has been made otherwise. This should mean in practice that consumers will no l to actually remove


the sugar option if it is not want onger have to take action at a h


10 | vendingi nternational-online.co m


Manufacturers typically set up their machines in the factory to ensure that the highest quality coffff ee can be dispensed. Until now, however, to reflect consumers’ taste demands, some sugar may have been added to coffff ee-based drinks in the initial setup; a configuration that had been developed over years.


ot drinks machine ed.


Now this step to stop unintentional sugar intake from vending machines has been taken by European manufacturers in order to demonstrate a proactive action in a wider EVA


VA commitment to encourage a more nutritious offffering at vending machines .


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