PICTURED: IAN REYNOLDS-YOUNG
Following TUCO’s extensive research into the UK’s vending operators, Ian Reynolds-Young suggests that universities spare themselves, and the operators, ‘a whole world of unnecessary work’…
Some of the finest vending set-ups in the UK are to be found on university campuses and that’s no surprise: anybody who’s ever been through university has a story to tell that involves the burning of midnight oil and in those stories, the vending machine is invariably cast as a ‘life-saver’.
Universities never sleep, but catering assistants do; besides, you don’t have to pay PAYE for a vending machine or remember its birthday…
Vending Machines are an essential part of campus life
It’s perhaps because those automatic purveyors of the reinvigorating 3am Americanos and Kit-Kats are such an essential part of campus life, that TUCO went to a great deal of trouble to identify those vending operators best equipped to deliver the services universities require.
The University Caterers Ltd (TUCO Ltd) is a private company limited by guarantee. It’s a membership organisation representing all in-house caterers operating within the Higher and Further Education sectors.
TUCO’s examination of vending operators was ‘rigorous’
According to Paula Bentley, Sales Manager at North West Vending, TUCO’s examination of vending operators was ‘rigorous’. ‘Only eleven UK operators matched TUCOs criteria’, she said, ‘and of those, only four companies were identified as being qualified to deliver each of the four vending categories TUCO had defined.’
There was much celebration at the St.Helen’s, Merseyside headquarters of North West Vending when news of the company’s TUCO recommendation in all four vending categories came through. ‘We were one of only four companies selected to provide the full range of vending services’ Paula said. ‘It was as though we’d been picked to play for England’.
‘We really were impressed by the intensity of TUCO’s research into our business although at the time it was hard work for all of us.’ Paula Bentley
Having made the team, North West Vending’s experts eagerly awaited a debut opportunity to study the specific requirements of a university and, calling upon years and years of experience in installing the right machines in the right places and therefore maximising sales, to come up with the ideal vending solution for that university: in other words, to demonstrate their ‘stock in trade’.
‘We really were impressed by the intensity of TUCO’s research into our business’, Paula said, ‘although at the time it was hard work for all of us.’
Vending companies have to ‘reinvent the wheel’
What has surprised Paula and, doubtless, the other vending operators ‘chosen’ by TUCO, is that every time an opportunity arises to bid for university business, they have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in terms of establishing their corporate credentials.
Enquiries of certain UK universities reveal that TUCO members appear to have their own, idiosyncratic purchasing policies. In this respect, there appears to be a lack of joined up thinking. Doesn’t it make sense that buyers make the most of the extensive work that’s been done by the organisation they belong to, in terms of establishing the business credentials of potential vending partners? Wouldn’t that be in their best interests?
Hey, university managers! TUCO checked out these vending companies so you wouldn’t have to!
Many UK vending companies rode the double-dip recession by becoming leaner and more efficient. To comply with the tender requirements of universities, operating company owners and executives must be seconded from their ‘normal’ duties for as long as it takes. That’s a big ask, when your people are already stretched to their limit.
Similarly, goodness only knows how many executive hours university management teams, in creating tender documents and subsequently scrutinising responses that often run to several thousand words, have expended.
So, on behalf of all those vending operators that successfully completed the TUCO process, I’d like to say: ‘Hey, university managers! TUCO checked these vending companies out, so you don’t have to!’
I’m sure if TUCO members realised the extent to which ‘the chosen eleven’ were vetted and appreciated the forensic complexity of the whole process, then they’d spare themselves, and the vending operators, a whole world of unnecessary work. Doesn’t it make sense for all of us to cut to the chase? If you’re a university vending buyer, could your organisation take ‘the credentials pitch’ as read when considering your next vending tender? Maybe?
I know one or two people out there who’d thank you for it….Incidentally, if you’re a vending operator, planet-vending.com would love to share your experiences – good and bad – in tendering / bidding for university contracts…
Ian Reynolds-Young is editor of planet-vending.com
