Vending Your Way To Success
Tuesday 16th December 2008

Few could have failed to have been impressed by Charles Ejogo’s appearance on the first series of Dragon’s Den, the TV programme that sees entrepreneurs pitch their idea to a panel of potential investors in the hope of raising money for their venture.

Charles was looking for financial backing (and no doubt some free publicity) for Umbrolly, a vending machine that dispenses umbrellas and other products and at the same time displays both still and video advertising images via a screen on the front of the machine.

The fact that he had already secured a deal with the London Underground to install Umbrolly machines throughout its network meant that the former investment banker was able to secure a promise of £150,000 from two of the panelists in return for a share in his company.

He was the first entrepreneur to strike a deal with the dragons, but as things turned out the investment never materialised. That was back in 2005 and so I was pleasantly surprised to see an Umbrolly vending machine next to the doors of a small shopping centre in Scotland recently. Not least because it had started to rain and I didn't have an umbrella with me. As I inserted my coins it reminded me what a great idea selling umbrellas via vending machines was, not least in my home country where if it isn't raining it's probably snowing.

Vending is big business in the UK, worth over a billion pounds a year. And it’s going to get bigger. Soft drinks and something for the weekend may be the bread and butter of the industry, but recent developments are taking the humble vending machine to new levels. And that means opportunities and ideas galore.

San Francisco airport for example has just signed a deal to install 15 state of the art vending machines known as “robotic retail stores” by their makers, Zoom Systems. These babies vend everything from aspirins to I-Pods, with customers interacting with the machine via a touch sensitive screen and paying via credit or debit card.

That’s right. Vending machines that accept credit cards. The latest vending machines already report back to base when products are running low and so adding credit card approval and acceptance was a natural progression. And this in turn allows machines to vend bigger ticket items.

Transaction Network Services has developed its Synapse Cashless System, a module that can be installed in vending machines in 15 minutes without any hard wiring (thanks to wireless technology) to allow them to accept credit card payments.

Other machines are vending exactly what people need where they need it. At swimming pools for example don’t be surprised to find a machine that will sell you swimming goggles, a swimming cap or a swimming costume.

In Japan, vending machines are big. Very big. The market is 50 times as big as the UK in terms of sales with over five million machines serving the public 24 hours a day. That’s one machine for every 23 people! And the range of products available is never ending. Golf balls, sex toys, ringtones, bread, travel insurance, holy water, toothbrushes, umbrellas and even underwear. In fact, until they were banned, modified cigarette vending machines were selling used underwear in the city of Chiba.

But here’s the latest in vending machines that really does take the biscuit. As in dog biscuit. Entrepreneur Todd Wilkinson’s machines dispense dog biscuits and he has already placed 20 of them in stores throughout Manhattan.

What would you put in a vending machine? And could that be a business idea that works for you?