Pictured: Britivic Vending’s Wesley Harris with lucky winner John Patchett
BY IAN REYNOLDS-YOUNG
… and finally, before we break up for Christmas, here’s a little vending story to warm your cockles.
It concerns a fellow named John Patchett. Now, John has a very demanding job: he works in Bradford City Council’s Early Intervention team, which is based at Margaret MacMillan Tower in the city, a building served by LTT Vending. ‘I work with children with special educational needs, trying to give them the support they need to allow them to do better’, John said.
‘Full-on’
It’s a ‘full-on’ role and because he’s always in a rush, John is a regular customer of the vending machines in The Tower’s busy foyer.
It was a couple of weeks ago that he got ‘the shock of his life’.
‘You see competitions all over the place’, John said, ‘but I’d never seen one on a vending machine before, so I thought I might as well have a go at Spin and Win as it didn’t cost anything to enter. You hear all the time about people winning stuff, but I’ve never won anything before and you never ever think it’ll be you.’
It was this time! John scooped first prize – £1,000 – in an on-bottle promotion run by Britvic’s ‘Drench’ brand. ‘It was dead easy to join in’, he said. ‘All I had to do was buy the drink from the vending machine and then use my phone to scan a QR code printed on a collar that was attached to the bottle. That brought up a fruit machine. I knew I’d won instantly and I couldn’t believe it!’
That was on a Friday and early on the following Monday morning, John received a phone call confirming he was a winner and arranging to hand over the prize. ‘It couldn’t have come at a better time’, John said. ‘My girlfriend Caroline and I have just moved into a new flat, so money’s tight and I was worried about how we could afford decent Christmas presents for my niece and nephew. Winning the prize was fantastic, perfect timing!’
So, there you have it: a vending ‘good news’ story to bring the year to a happy ending.
Merry Christmas everyone!
*Planet Vending will bring you full details of the promotion and the people behind it, in the New Year.
