Planet Vending is pleased to republish the latest blog post from N&W Managing Director DAVE WARD, (pictured).
Most of us are curmudgeons (to a greater or lesser degree) when it comes to discussing performance in business. We can all think of something in retrospect that we could have done better and there’s always a missed opportunity to rue.
But I must be honest: the past twelve months have been tremendously successful for N&W. We’ve seen a double-digit improvement in sales and I think that this is down to our commitment to innovation, a commitment we stick to, even when the going gets really tough.
This year’s success prompted me to re-read my blog entry of a year ago, when I was trying to be N&W’s answer to Gypsy Rose Lee with my predictions for the future. I started by writing; ‘we believe that N&W is now the only manufacturer able to offer you the perfect solution for any of your automatic food and drink retailing requirements.’
I was advised at the time that this was a bit of a bold statement to make, but I stood my ground with the would-be ‘red-penners’, because I believed it was true. After all, we’d just plugged a gap in our range with the addition of Sinfonia, the large, robust can and bottle machine we’d been waiting for. We’d added Canto Touch to our drinks offer; the machine that was first to marry the benefits of intuitive, touch-screen media-savvy vending with the ability to serve genuine, gourmet quality, espresso-based Italian coffees. ‘Two birds, one stone’, you might say.
These were standard bearing, leading edge machines. However, a year ago, I was getting just as excited about the addition to our portfolio of two brand-new, smart, energy-efficient machines, which made advanced vending an option in ‘smaller’ work places and venues. As expected, Opera and Melodia have made their marks this year.
I realise that trading conditions have improved – having endured two or three years of industry retrenchment, you might argue that things could hardly have got any worse – but that on its own is not enough to account for the numbers we’ve delivered this year…
So, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish Planet Vending readers a Happy New year and assure you that at N&W we’re back fit, fresh and focused for ‘fifteen.
