It’s ‘thirty years old’, but thanks to the Tin Pot vending company, this drinks vending machine is still giving great service. So, we’re asking: ‘is this the UK’s oldest working vending machine?’
And the best story of the week is…?
There’s no doubt in our minds here at PV, because an e-mail we received from Frank Champion really did make us LOL.
‘I had a request from an old customer this week to see if l could repair his vending machine’, Frank said. ‘Evidently, it ‘wasn’t making frothy coffee!’ I took one look at the machine and I knew how it must have felt to have been a hanging judge. I really thought the machine would have to be condemned. I mean, the only coin it would accept was the old 5p.’
‘But I promised that I’d do what I could and, what do you know? Thanks to the brilliant and quite frankly amazing service from Dave (Brecon) at Vendparts, I was able to source a brand new whipper motor.
‘’Nothing amazing there’, l here you say; but… I reckon that the machine must be over 30 years old and it’s still giving my customer satisfaction.’
A Character
We’ve never met him, but evidently, Frank Champion is a what my dear old dad would have called ‘a character’. ‘I have been self employed as a vending machine engineer /operator for the past 26 years’, he told us. ‘I trade as ‘Tin-Pot Vending’.’ We think he’s pulling our leg, but not a bit of it. ‘It’s true’, he says. ‘The name was a gag to begin with but after 26 years it’s stuck!’
Before he went freelance, based in sunny Romford, Frank spent 10 years as an engineer for GKN Sankey Vending, the company that’s known these days as N&W.
Frank’s customer is in deepest Hertfordshire, but we’ve promised we won’t be more specific than that. Frank doesn’t want any Tom, Dick or Harry turning up trying to sell a new machine. ‘If you tell them any more they’ll be flooded with calls from other vending companies wanting to supply them with a new machine’, he said, but they’ll all be wasting their time – believe me, I’ve tried!
As for Vendparts, the company has been trading for 40 years and has built up widespread sources of OEM and replacement parts for vending machines from all the top name UK and international brands. Many products are unique to Vendparts and there are literally thousands of products in stock at any one time. ‘We’ve got components for virtually all the vending machines currently operating in today’s market place’, Dave said, ‘from fuses right through to extractor fans and chiller units. This was an unusual request but I’m glad we were able to help.o
So, dear readers, two things: Firstly, can you identify the machine? Make and model and (if you can) its approximate year of introduction to the UK and secondly, are you aware of a machine that’s still in daily use that’s older than this one?
Get in touch! ed****@************ng.com or call Ian at PV on 01204 772089
