NEWS | Industry Updates


Evoca UK’s service team launched in August


Evoca UK has announced the launch of Evoca Service – a dedicated team that ‘will partner with customers to act as an external provider to offer installation, service or maintenance of all the vending, bean to cup and traditional espresso machines in the Evoca portfolio. Craig Jukes, Evoca’s technical and service


director will lead the new team, which is comprised of service manager Grant Robinson, (who comes to Evoca with over 10 years of service experience); a service scheduler, who will control the back-office that guides the team’s day-to-day activities and an initial tranche of six expert service


engineers: two in the north, two in the midlands and two in the south. Craig explains the reasons why the company has established the team: “Evoca Group is leading the industry in the development of machines that recreate the quality of the High Street coffee shop in the workplace, and all out of home locations. The service team is here to assist customers both old and new, acting as an integral support partner. Evoca Service will give customers the peace of mind of knowing that all scheduled servicing will be covered for a 12-month period, or from being able


to choose the Flexi Plan for ad hoc, pay as you go, requirements.


“Our long-standing clients are well- established in the vending channels and many of them are interested in our OCS and HoReCa machines,” Craig says. “The trouble is many of them have had to


forego potentially lucrative opportunities on their patch, because they don’t have access to the expertise that these opportunities demand. With the support of our new service department, that will no longer be the case and those customers will be able to expand their offer in confidence.


Extended Producer Responsibility delayed until October 2025


The Vending & Automated Retail Association (AVA) Environment committee has updated the AVA guidance document which provides a summary of changes to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme and the impact on vending businesses.. The Department for Environment,


Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) announced a delay in the introduction of EPR system which places cost obligations upon packaging producers in a bid to reduce ‘excessive’ packaging, and was due to fully open in just a few months’ time. There have been extensive discussions between Government and industry over recent months, with calls for a delay and re-think of the design of the scheme growing. Defra has subsequently


4 | vendinginternational-online.com


announced that that whilst the existing requirement for data collection by those eligible will continue, the remainder of the obligations, including payments, will be delayed for a period which, with elections potentially looming, could be as much as two years. It says: “Following extensive engagement with industry, and in light of the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context, new rules to ensure packaging producers pay for the cost of recycling their packaging will be deferred a year from October 2024 to 2025. “Defra’s EPR Guidance page has been


updated to reflect these changes. Although EPR data reporting, as currently defined, would have little


administrative impact on operator members, the cost impact on suppliers could be huge – which would be bound to be reflected in ongoing pricing. Currently the declared intent is to continue with the drive towards mandatory cup takeback and the implementation of a Deposit Return Scheme across the UK. The Vending & Automated Retail Association (AVA) Environment committee has updated the AVA guidance document which provides a summary of these changes: the cost impact it could have for your business and steps you can take to manage these changes. This can be found at https:// www.the-ava.com/extended-producer- responsibility-epr-ava-members-guide- august-2023/


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