Farm vending machines have been used in Germany for over 25 years to sell produce to locals and those passing through, but they're also on the rise in other European countries. "In Germany, there are many farm shops. They're open one or two days, and on the other days, people can buy the produce through the vending machines," Chris Verhoeven of Automaten Centrale says. He was at Potato Europe for Roesler Automaten, as importer for the Dutch and Belgian market.
Only recently, Verhoeven supplied a vending machine to a Belgian tomato grower, who put a small selling space in his storage to sell locally. Both coins and bills can be used to pay. The machine also has modern software with sales statistics and diagnoses. A new development is connecting the machines to web shops, where customers order their product and receive a code to collect it from the vending machine.
"It used to be grandma and grandpa who took care of local sales, but that's mostly a thing of the past. The vending machines have taken that place. We supply both cooled and non-cooled machines. In the Netherlands, the price of an average vending machine is 6,000-7,000 Euro", Chris says. According to him, there is not a lot of competition on the vending machine market yet. "In that respect, it's still really a niche market. Germany was a trendsetter, but other countries are now following fast. It's actually like a store without staff."
For more information:
Automaten Centrale
Blaktweg 16
5962 NH Melderslo
Chris Verhoeven
Mob: +31(0)6-40585089
c.a.w.verhoeven@planet.nl
www.automatencentrale.nl