Following inaccuracies in our story, ‘I’m Buying’, PV was contacted by Jeremy Hamer, the SnackTime plc Chairman. He asked us to correct several factual inaccuracies and hopefully that’s what we’ve done. The offending paragraph in the original story has now been cut completely and we apologise unreservedly, to Mr Hamer and all at SnackTime, for its publication.
This is how we got it wrong. We said: ‘SnackTime’s operators are self-employed, with their own territory of machines to fill and maintain. It’s a business model that some UK companies have looked at several times and shied away from, as it appears to surrender control of the estate away from central management. What’s more, there’s the danger that quality control is surrendered to a third party, over whom the business owners have little disciplinary control…’
This is untrue. So untrue, in fact, that it’s a wonder Mr. Hamer has been so gracious in the light of our ignorance. We thank him humbly. Had the roles been reversed I’d probably have gone round to his house at dawn with a pair of duelling pistols and a vengeful expression…
These are the facts of the matter:
- SnackTime uses 80 operators, of whom 40 are employed and 40 are self-employed. All of them have AVA standards certificates.
- All SnackTime’s team leaders are employed and the teams that they manage are a mixture of employed and self-employed people – therefore both groups are managed by and measured against the same standards.
- Audits are carried out and results logged in with both AVA and ISO standards
- SLAs are met by all staff, whether they are employed or self-employed.
We’re pleased to have set the record straight and once again we apologise for any inconvenience we may have caused.
