Sugarooney

[PabloV8Haggis]

Let's upset the applecart!

Sugar tax is kicking in soon for drinks, me thinks sweets will soon follow! What is the industry doing about it? About time we started seeing some sugar free options, plenty of them!
Otherwise I guess operators will start walking with fingers to other avenues/outlets that satisfy that requirement. I think the mech upgrade was very slow for the bigger operator, so I am not going to wait too long for sugar free sweet options.

[Tufty]

I haven't researched the sugar tax but I did read some articles about the Irn Bru recipe changing to lower sugar levels.

In the small survey they did ,the vast majority of participants couldn't detect a difference. This gives me the belief that the big guns in the sweet industry can replicate the flavours with vastly reduced sugars. Hopefully it is all well under way!

[PabloV8Haggis]

I must have too much time on my hand, waiting for the weather news to see if work is a go today

I asked supplier for sugar free products three years ago, was informed people do not want them. I have many customers asking for said products, with the on rush of do-Gooders in parliament and elsewhere looking for headlines, sugar is the order of the day. I am a person who likes a plan A and plan B, I posted to gauge ideas of what others are thinking so that I have perhaps the heads up of the inevitable, sugar tax is in the "post", it will arrive. Vending as we know it costs £1 a vend, we earn x from each sale, the margins are ever shrinking, would a sugar tax decrease it further? My mini toblerones, should be renamed as tiny toblerones
Pot contents have been shrinking year on....... sugar free products might alleviate that, we need alternatives now and not when the tax arrives.
I am already looking at alternatives.
Come on suppliers, you know you want too!

[Style]

IMO the suppliers dont do healthy options because people dont buy them. I also have had loads of people asking for them. My answer "the healthiest thing we do is chocolate raisins" but whilst I have a few sites that do well in these most dont sell them so I take them out again. In my latest order from Hurleys Paul couldnt supply any as he has run out and is considering not doing them anymore as such a poor seller.
I remember going to Lea Valley stadium a couple of years ago, there were two towers next to each other one with chocolate and sweets the other with dried fruit, nuts other healthy stuff. The health one was empty.

So yes people ask for the option but then choose the chocolate/sweets!

Andy

[Siting Services]

We introduced healthy options - they bombed and we had to give all the dried fruit and nuts to a local pig farmer. Doing market research showed there was interest - the reality is the customers don’t go for it even though they said they wanted it If there were only healthy options then yes they would sell, but as we all know - Vending is an impulse purchase and when you need that fix chocolate/sugar is the fix we are after.

[PGBrew]

I get asked for olives, they never sell so I take them out again. Cashews were a top seller 10 years ago now I only sell a few. I still sell healthier products in adult only pubs.

Pete

[Siting Services]

I get asked for olives, they never sell so I take them out again. Cashews were a top seller 10 years ago now I only sell a few. I still sell healthier products in adult only pubs.

Pete

Are the olives you have tried Salysol Pete? If so, maybe the reason they don’t sell well is because they are in a strange tasting flavoured water which we are not used to in the UK.

[PabloV8Haggis]

The tax is projected to be between 10 - 20 %, will it happen oh yes! They made a mistake with the drinks taxation pricing! They will not make a mistake with the sweets which is well in most cases 100% sugar!

Sugar free might be the way to go!

Damned if I am going to change hundred of mechs again!

[PabloV8Haggis]

Some loonatic in Scotland wants to introduce no fizzy drinks at all zones around schools, they are talking about 400 yards away from schools. Then they want a blanket ban on fizzy drinks! Worlds going crazy!
Can someone tell government that virtually all food sold now has some form of sugar! Idiots! Leave our sweets alone!

[radical.richard]

If you saw the food program the other night, in fact our bodies convert all carbs to sugar - glucose our bodies need it to function, this even includes the carbs in fruit and vegetables. The politicians and activists need to get educated, anything in excess is bad for you.