Ian Reynolds-Young meets Emma and Maggie Ritchie, (pictured), of Caledonian Vending in Cumbernauld
It was John Lennon who said, ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’ Three years ago, ‘life’ happened to the Ritchie family in a big way.
As Caledonian Vending prepares for its twenty-first, Maggie Ritchie recalls the events of that day with the clarity you’d expect of a widow who has gone over the circumstances of her husband’s untimely death over and over again. ‘It’d been a really good day’, she says as we get together over a coffee in Caledonian’s offices in Cumbernauld, near Glasgow. ‘Willie was in a super, super mood, laughing and singing ‘Oh! What A Beautiful Morning’ at the top of his voice.’
Perhaps Willie had a wonderful feeling that everything was going his way, little knowing that this wonderful morning would prove to be his last…
The couple’s daughter, Emma, had joined the business at eighteen and gradually, Willie had been handing over the reins.
‘There’d been a bereavement very close to us’, she says, ‘and the man who died was almost exactly the same age as dad. His widow had had a leave of absence from her work, and I said to dad, ‘if you died, I’d have to be in here the next day.’ The statement was prophetic; the day after his death, it was, indeed, ‘business as usual’.
Emma was undeniably young, but she was steeped in every aspect of the business. ‘Dad was always challenging me to do things’, Emma says. ‘I can remember being terrified of making my first cold call but dad insisted.’ As though it was a right of passage? ‘Yes’, Emma says, ‘something that had to be done. But it meant that I was ready to take over, that I had a better than even chance of making a go of it.’
The family had lost a loved one; the vending industry had lost one of its best-known characters. Willie had spent his entire working life in vending, culminating in eighteen years as Managing Director of Caledonian Vending, the company he founded in 1992. Surely there was a danger that the loss of such experienced leadership made the company vulnerable? Would its customers continue to trust the business to deliver without its’ seasoned helmsman? Would competitors, like vultures, circle overhead, ready to sow seeds of doubt?’
‘You only really understand what ‘loyalty’ means when something dreadful happens.’ Maggie Ritchie
‘No, on both counts’, Maggie says emphatically. ‘The vending business can be pretty ruthless but we’ve always steered away from confrontations with competitors’ she said. ‘As a business, we kept ourselves to ourselves and we were never a party to industry gossip. By and large, competitors maintained a respectful distance.’
‘To be honest with you’, Emma adds, ‘they’d have been wasting their time. Our customers, thankfully, never doubted that Caledonian would continue to deliver the same ‘service with a personal touch’ that had become our hallmark.’
‘In fact’, says Maggie, ‘when they’re approached by a vending company, the first thing most of our customers do is give us a ring to tip us off!’
Both Emma and Maggie were keen to record their appreciation of the contribution made by their staff as they dealt with the consequences of Willie’s untimely death. ‘Most of our team has been with us for years and years, but you only really understand what ‘loyalty’ means when something dreadful happens’, she said. ‘The staff couldn’t have been more supportive and experience has made Caledonian Vending a kind of extended family’.
The intervening years have not been without challenges. However, under the tutelage of Emma, aided and abetted by Office Manager Lisa and with the administrative assistance of Maggie, Caledonian has not simply thrived; it has prospered and grown.
Two contracts in particular, that are huge in scope and will last for at least eight years, took the business into a different league. ‘Winning contracts is all well and good’, Emma says, ‘but with them come demands, especially in terms of reporting, that just eat away at your time…’
Caledonian had looked into Vendman technology before and Emma had been impressed, as much as anything else, by its timesaving qualities. The new contracts were the tipping point. ‘I thought it was a matter of time before we’d need Vendman and I realised that the bigger the company grew, the more complicated it would be, so we decided to bite the bullet.’
‘Vendman is paying for itself already, cutting down on Lisa’s time.’ Emma Ritchie
Both Emma and Maggie see the adoption of Vendman as a tangible signal of Caledonian’s maturity as a company. ‘It’s an indicator that we’ve reached a certain size and that we’ve attained a certain level of professionalism’ Maggie said. ‘That’s why the company’s fleet of vans now carry the Vendman logo, alongside that of the AVA and NIVA. We feel that having Vendman on our team enhances our credibility as a vending business.’
Vendman has already eliminated many of those time-consuming tasks that Emma found so irksome. However, as Caledonian ‘grows into’ the software, so much more will be accomplished just as effortlessly. ‘In the next stage, we’ll be able to calculate the profit share that’s due to be rebated to customers at the push of a button.
‘There’s less admin all round the business’, Emma says. ‘Vendman controls stock, allowing the operators to be better organised; it manages our van routes, and it tells us what’s selling and what’s not. Vendman will run a quarterly diagnostic report that will help us to make improvements in the way we serve customers.
‘It’s paying for itself already, cutting down on Lisa’s time. Lisa’s been fantastic for us, she’s embraced Vendman.’
‘She’s younger than us’, says Maggie, ‘and she ‘gets it’ quicker than we do!’
‘Lisa understands it and when she’s got it, I learn from Lisa’, Emma says. ‘I get to keep my eye on the business.’
With this kind of focus, it’s hard to imagine that the future holds anything other than good things for Caledonian and as the company completes its twenty-first year, there’s a feeling that it really has come of age.
