… And It’s A New Year’s Honour For Nathan.
Planet Vending Editor Ian Reynolds-Young sees in the New Year with Vendman MD Rob Little, (pictured)
It’s pandemonium at Vendman HQ in Hazel Grove, near Stockport. The Ground Floor is entirely out of bounds to employees as workmen in hard hats and hi-vis jackets raze walls and rip out ceilings and it’ll stay that way ‘for the next six or so weeks.’
At which point, staff will move downstairs and similar major works will begin upstairs. Make no mistake, this is one major re-model.
‘It just got to the point where the building as it was, was no longer fit for purpose’, Rob said, as we huddled together in the cramped space he’s sharing temporarily with Vendman’s latest new recruit, apprentice Jack Bradbury. With the central heating out of action and temperatures outside plummeting, the office (indeed, the whole of the top floor), is being heated by a series of electric warm air machines. It’s hardly ideal, ‘but it’ll be worth it’, Rob laughs.
‘The building was once two separate houses that were knocked together over twenty years ago’, Rob says. ‘We’ve been here for fifteen years and in that time the number of staff has more than doubled. There are twenty-four of us now and it was a case of ‘move entirely’ or ‘re-configure the building’. The whole project is being driven by our continuing expansion. We’ve got more bodies than we had space.’
With so much of the UK vending industry already committed to Vendman, including the members of NIVO, you have to ask, ‘where has the expansion come from?’ The answer is two-fold. Since the introduction of ‘Vendman Lite’ a couple of years ago, the company has welcomed into the fold a number of businesses with smaller operations than the traditional Vendman customer. Vendman Lite has, in fact, expanded the marketplace for vending software per-se by making it feasible for ‘the little guy’ (that’s my term not Rob’s, by the way) to enjoy the same advantages of unparalleled control over every aspect of their businesses, just like the big-hitters do.
However, the company’s recent ‘big ticket’ business acquisitions have all been made in Europe…
‘We’ve been exhibiting at the major European shows for the past couple of years’, Rob said, ‘and consequently, we’ve raised the profile of the business on the continent hugely. We now have customers in Germany, Holland, Sweden, Belgium and France and word is getting around that it’s worthwhile talking to us.’
Vendman has had David Burger in place for some time in Germany and the company has recently added to its continental team. In fact, activity on the Continent is now taking a considerable proportion of Director Daniel Hamby’s time. ‘Daniel’s is in charge of our European operations’, Rob confirmed, adding: ‘and the fact that Vendman software is available in French, German, Dutch, Italian and Flemish demonstrates that we’re making in roads.’
As a consequence of the expansion there are a number of new faces at Vendman HQ, but the Big News that Vendman has shared this New Year is that Nathan Little has been appointed to the board as Product Director, as we reported here on Planet Vending.
‘Nathan’s been in the business for 10 years now and he’s really coming into his own recently, fulfilling his potential and making a huge difference to the company’, Rob said. ‘He’s earned his elevation to the board and his appointment demonstrates that Vendman is in business for the long-haul and that there’s a clear path of succession already in place.’
At which point, there’s a knock on the door and yet another body tries to squeeze in to the temporary space. There’s a deal of inelegant shuffling to accommodate the newcomer. Rob laughs it off: ‘It won’t be for long, just another couple of months’, he says ‘and anyway, it could be worse. Usually, they’re hammering away all day and it drives you…’
Er, let’s leave it there.
