Hi advise needed newbie

[mightvend]

Hi all i have been searching around this site and the net in general, I have decided to get involved in the tubz vending type business and i'm looking for some advice and hopefully there is someone here that can help me, firstly ive decided not to go the franchise route but to look into the possibilities of buying an established round that someone has built up 40+ sites somewhere in that region as a taster into the business, then look to expand from there, if I like it, i,m based on the norfolk/suffolk border.

When looking to buy into this business what pitfalls should i look out for?

What are the busy/quieter times of the year in general

machine security

How effective are "the unwritten vending rules" ie someone sticking another machine in?

Machine Reliability

Anything else I should know about???

Thanks in advance Vern

[Coin Operated Group]

Hi Vern

I think you've got the right idea in buying up an existing round, saves a lot of time and money.

Find out if there's another operator working in your area and have a chat with them.

I know a few of the guys in other areas work with operators in their area to avoid any conflicts.

Busiest times for the towers are summer holidays I believe, and the quietest January? as everyone is on a diet.

Good Luck!

[mightvend]

Thanks for the reply Matt what pitfalls should i look out for?

[Coin Operated Group]

Buying shitty towers, **** selling sweets, and getting **** sites.

[Mark@YorVend]

Matt has just about said it all really, don't buy **** towers (stick to clenport machines), there are some good items to be had on ebay but mostly it's just junk machines, so be carefull!
Also not everything that fits into a tub will sell, stick to big name established brands (ie skittles, moaom, haribo), and well established traditional family favourites.
Don't bother with fads. Loom bands were over so quickly they weren't worth the cost of the machine stickers, but bouncy balls (especially the flashing ones) have been around since the dawn of time, and there is a good reason for that!!

Get Pringle machines and try and get them into your good pub sites (20% commission), it makes more sense to empty two machines in the same site as it takes hardly any extra time. If your lucky enough to get one of those large family pubs put some toys in the tower for a month or two, if they sell well you can convince them to take a toy machine too!

As for the 'unwritten rule', most established operators don't poach sites, it seems to be the newbies that come in and try taking other peoples sites. I have had a couple of problems with it recently (tubz vending franchisee), and am looking at getting a couple of coin mechs that run on 50p coins. If I find anymore machines appearing next to mine I will just put a 50p mech on it and sell them at cost price!!

[mightvend]

Thanks for the advice, are tubz vending towers clenport machines?

[PabloV8]

Hi and welcome to the world of vending, hope 2015 is good for you.

[PabloV8]

Just to concur what has been flagged:

Under no circumstances should you purchase crap machines - it is a false economy, and is likely to repay you with numerous call outs due to machine failure. Customers really get annoyed when machines fail.

I have a mix between new and second hand machines. The new machines (clenport) bought from tubz vending have been really good (touch wood) and never really cause concern.

The second hand machines bought from another company have caused me umpteen problems and many callouts.

You get what you pay for. Me, I now prefer to buy new and have piece of mind.


Happy munching.

[PabloV8]

With this type of business you are not going to become Lord Sugar!

It helps if you have income from elsewhere, what I mean by this is I do not rely on the vending for an income and plough all profits back into the business hence you can grow fairly quickly.

I found that when I started with 25 machines I was visiting the customers too frequently and only topping up said machines with a small reward. Now I have a reasonable round so do not visit machines until they are taking over 30 etc, in e not too distant future I hope to have enough machines so that when I service them they should be taking 50 at a time.

It is also a good idea to have a broad spectrum of different types of business ie, I do not have too many pubs etc.

Hope is helps.

[PabloV8]

Forgot to mention, when you start try and keep your stock to say a choice of 12 products and if you can, keep with the good brands initially ie, smarties, rolo, toberlone, maoam, treats, pastilles etc.

Do not over order otherwise you will have stock sitting for a while, the expiry dates are not an issue except with pastilles - these have a short shelf life. Just written off about a box myself as I ordered too many, we are all learning. In future I shall keep tabs on my pastilles.

You also need to be careful with chocolate in the summer due to heat, hot chocolate does not go down a great bunch so if the towers are in sunlight, change the contents accordingly.

I find that the winter seems to be having a problem with some shelled products such as the treets and mints, guess the garage and my van is a little to cold for those critters.

Hope that helps.