LEISURE VENDING
Vending offers a lifeline to leisure
It’s no secret that leisure and hospitality have been hard hit by the pandemic, but vending can help this sector as it tries to get back on its feet.
T
he events of the last 18 months have changed consumer behaviour in significant ways. The demand for
contact free and convenient interactions have sky rocketed. Add to that, in all walks of life today’s consumers are being driven by a number of factors among them health and wellbeing, convenience, environmental impact and energy efficiency – all factors the vending industry can address in spades. That means that in leisure and hospitality,
the challenge is now to offer food and drink solutions in the way that guests and customers feel most comfortable and acceptable.
Gemma Tuxford, UK business development
manager for Zerica says: “Vending can really play a huge part in the revival of these sectors in encouraging people to resume certain behaviours safely, maybe in a slightly modified way. Vending solutions are often by default attendant-free and now that people may still want to limit social contacts and to socially distance, touch-free, hassle-free vending solutions have never been more in demand. “Whatever the season or staffing
arrangements, in these potentially high- footfall sectors, people have to feel safe when accessing products making touch-free dispensing and payment a must and remote servicing a priority in the sector. Units are relying more heavily on technology for dispensing, payments and also servicing. NFC tags is one option and some manufacturers have also introduced mobile app enabled functionality. Some have even introduced remote servicing improving both first time fix rates and speed of response. “The environment is also a key consideration for many businesses. When operating an ‘around the clock’ service some manufactures have designed machines that have ‘low energy consumption’ modes for times of the day when demand is low. Sometimes, product selections are automatically limited based on programmable timeslots which greatly reduces overall energy consumption.” It's very clear that contactless payment
solutions will be critical to vending’s role in these sectors as it attempts to bridge a gap until full catering services are available again.
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vendinginternational-online.com Laura Barwell, business development
manager at VMC believes this should be food for thought for operators. “Re- opening with new rules and restrictions in place has put more prominence on providing all services in a clean and hygienic way for customers, and contactless has made this possible during the pandemic. As a result, we have seen an increase in demand for our contactless vending readers, as they are very quick to install and have enabled venues to bolster their reduced catering operations.” “We are also seeing an increasing level of
interest from hospitality and leisure clients as they consider the benefits of new food and non-food vending options. Similarly, in holiday parks the addition of unattended contactless readers to on-site leisure activities can make it possible to maintain, and in some cases grow, their regular facilities without the need for extra staffing or cash handling.” COO at Mr Lee’s Pure Foods Martin
Verspeak concurs with all of the above. He hints that not only are people trying new foods and adopting healthier eating habits meaning leisure and hospitality settings will have to make sure they cater for these new needs, but that post pandemic, the demand for safe and low contact access to high quality tasty foods will be very important. Mr Lee’s product ranges with real freeze-
dried ingredients and no MSG or artificial flavourings, offered via a touch-free machine, are part of the company’s answer to the current trends.
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