N&W recently welcomed a Cover Group Delegation to its HQ in Valbrembo, Italy; and Planet Vending Tagged Along. Just.
By Ian Reynolds-Young, Editor, Planet Vending
Pictured: L-R Calvin Payne, Dave Ward, Mark Simmonds, Mark Braid.
Oops…
When the group assembles in the lobby of the Double Trees Hilton Hotel in Milan for the trip to N&W HQ at Valbrembo, two of its number, (who have missed breakfast), sashay into its midst even as host Dave Ward is looking at his watch (again) and trying his damnedest to mask his irritation.
The latecomers are yours truly, Editor of Planet Vending, and his wife, The Publisher. For us, at least, it’s the morning after the night before.
Monza
Not an auspicious beginning and as the Cover Group representatives, Mark Simmonds of SuperCups; Calvin Payne of Complete Vending and Mark Braid of Myrtle Coffee – on a really tight schedule – have already piled into the people carrier and The Publisher has bagged the navigator’s chair beside our chauffeur Mr. Ward, I am left to fold up my knees and crouch awkwardly somewhere in the vehicle’s unaccommodating middle. That’ll teach me to be late.
The trip north-west (ish) to Valbrembo, along the main Milan to Venice motorway, takes around an hour. My co-passengers are in demand: phone calls from the office and from customers aren’t hindered by national boundaries and so for these guys, despite the fact that Lombardy is shining on them from just beyond the windscreen, this is a day much like any other – except maybe for the added inconvenience of huddling in the rear of a people carrier.
I, on the other hand, have time to take in the scenery. As we reached the Monza exit en-route, traffic on the opposite carriageway was queuing for miles behind an accident. What is it with Monza? If the place is synonymous with Italian motor racing, then it’s also synonymous with disastrous crashes… In 1928, twenty-seven fans along with driver Emilio Materassi were killed when his car ploughed into spectators. Then, in 1933, immediately following the re-opening of the track after the disaster, three top drivers, Guiseppe Campari, Baconin Borzacchini and Stanislaw Czaykowski were killed in two separate accidents.The racing world was stunned and this spelled the end for Monza. They called it ‘Black Sunday’.
Rather timidly, I asked Dave, (who was driving perfectly sensibly and legally, by the way), if he’d mind slowing down. ‘Ah’, said the petrol-head knowingly. ‘Monza?’ I nodded.
Coffee? ‘You Came To The Right Place!’
By and by, we arrive chez N&W to find the place flooded in warm spring sunshine and the air tasting of the mountains that rise darkly in the distance.
It’s time for a coffee. We’ve come to the right place! N&W’s showroom at Valbrembo dwarfs the one at Bilston and it seemed to me that every machine in the company’s extensive portfolio was geared up and ready to go.
The culture of office coffee is different here in Italy. People gather around the coffee machine to sip tiny espressos from tiny cups that are dispensed complete with tiny stirrers. They finish their drinks and go; they don’t take a cup back to their desks.
When in Valbrembo, and all that… So, after our ‘on the hoof’, shop-talking Italian coffee break, we set off at Dave’s heels for a conducted tour around the factory. Honestly, it’s like going into the Tardis. Outside? Looks nothing much. Inside? Cavernous.
The Factory
We get to follow the production process from ‘goods-in’ to ‘goods-out’ and the story everywhere we look is one of precision. Huge robotic machines hurl sheet metal left and right at high speed, folding and punching all the while. Elsewhere, new Necta products progress sedately along production lines, where a progression of smart, well-trained workers adds component parts one by one. There’s noise and activity everywhere.
It’s ‘like clockwork’ and it’s impressive: evidently, great care is taken in the manufacture of Necta products as well as in their design and us visitors agree amongst ourselves that the operation is worthy of Dave’s non-stop, enthusiastic commentary.
After half an hour or so, in which I narrowly escape being mown down by a forklift truck going about its rightful business, it’s back to the showroom for another round of standing-up coffees. Now, though, the conversation gets to the nitty-gritty…
The Right Machine For The Job
The Cover Group delegates are here with an important agenda: they’re looking for a specific sort of machine to add to their product portfolio and they gather around a candidate for the job, trying its various options, comparing notes. Long-time N&W customer Calvin Payne, familiar with the machine under scrutiny, takes over the role of expert demonstrator and, impressively, he can answer most of his colleagues’ questions, temporarily reducing Dave to the role of happy spectator.
It’s hard to run a business at the same time as keeping up with new technologies and changing marketplace trends. Messrs. Simmonds, Payne and Braid, each of them the epitome of ‘hands on’ in their approach to management, seem determined to cram into this precious ‘Time-Out’ as much knowledge about N&W’s cornucopia of new products as they possible can.
Whether the visit will lead to a deal or not, only time will tell. However, if the visit was designed to build his guests’ confidence in N&W and its products, then Dave enjoyed a resounding success.
Cover Story
‘It was a great experience actually just to see the Italian vending industry because it’s so different from ours’, Mark Braid told me. ‘I would say traditional vending as we know it was almost secondary at Venditalia. The range of pods and capsules and the quality, together with the wide range of choice, was amazing.’ Mark has not – so far – been a major customer of N&W, but he, like me, was impressed by the sheer scale and professionalism of the Valbrembo operation. ‘It’s been an eye-opener’, he admitted.
Mark Simmonds, too, found Venditalia surpassed his expectations. ‘It was genuinely exciting’, he told me, ‘there was a real buzz about the place. It’s not like our staid approach to vending!’ He was similarly up-beat about his visit to N&W. ‘We came to look for a machine that could do a specific job for us and let’s just say that the trip to Valbrembo was very useful. There are a lot of new ideas to think about and a lot of new equipment to evaluate. It’s a lot of information to take in, in such a short space of time and it’s been hectic from start to finish but it’s been worth it.’
And so, back to the Venditalia halls with no further delay, for further whistle-stop meetings.
Aftermath
‘It’s hard work for everybody but it’s also very enjoyable’, Dave Ward said afterwards. ‘It sounds like a cliché, but there’s nothing quite like spending time with your customers, away from the office, to get to know them, and their requirements, better. You can’t always quantify ‘success’ in terms of immediate orders, but you can always feel it in terms of goodwill. Having said that, the guys were particularly impressed with what we had to offer and I hope that they report favourably to their fellow Cover Group members.’
From PV’s point of view, it was a privilege (and, as Mark Braid said, ‘an eye-opener’) to be invited to join the trip and to be a party to the ensuing machine discussions. And if a deal is done as a result of the visit, the industry will read about it first on Planet Vending!
MORE INFORMATION
All you need on Complete Vending is here
More on Myrtle Coffee here
