Vendon’s Stock Control – By Ian Reynolds-Young
How well do you know your vending machines? If one was picked at random, would you be able to say which spiral would be the first to empty? And could you be sure that the product that takes up the most space in your planogram really is the one that makes you the most money?
Scratching your head? That probably means your machines are stocked on the basis that you’ve always stocked them that way; that your refilling regime is dictated by force of habit, as opposed to cold, hard facts and figures. This modus operandi can cost you in two places: in the spirals that run dry before the next scheduled visit, and in the adjacent spirals clogged with slow-moving stock that’s going nowhere fast.
Sound familiar? It needn’t be that way: Vendon’s Stock Control eliminates force of habit and replaces it with cold, hard facts – presented to you in real time.
It’s all accomplished thanks to vBox, Vendon’s state-of-the-art IoT device, which connects each of your machines to Vendon Cloud and reports every sale. Stock levels reset when your operator confirms a refill and drops accordingly as each sale is made, so you can see what’s in every spiral, in every machine, whenever you like from wherever you like.
Lost sales on a well-stocked machine
A single empty spiral can cost you. The machine might look well-stocked, but the top seller has sold out, and you don’t find that out until your operator makes their next scheduled. visit.
But if you use Vendon Cloud to flag that top seller as a Critical Product, when it reaches a pre-determined low stock level, the machine is automatically added to your visit list, even if everything else in it is nearly full. Imagine the benefit of this forewarning in summer: you’ll never run out of water and cold drinks when a hot spell hits.
Packed for each machine
Warehouse picking lists come straight from the real-time data vBox brings to your Vendon Cloud enabling your staff to pack exactly what’s required for each machine, rounded up to full supplier packs. And on site, operators need make only one journey from the van to the machine: there’s no longer any need to visit the machine, note what’s required and then return to the van to get the necessary stock. At the machine, Vendon Mobile shows what was planned against what went in and the operator corrects the stock on the spot, ensuring that your next pick list counts down from the right number.
The German operator Hensing, which runs several thousand machines, changed its purchasing question from ‘what do we usually order?’ to ‘what do the machines actually need?’ ‘Our entire purchasing process is managed through Vendon,’ said Managing Director Dirk Hensing.
Stock in the wrong place
Every bottle sitting in a slow machine represents money that isn’t working for you. So, if a spiral holds 15 but sells 10 between visits, fill it to 10. The other five can be deployed to a site that keeps running out. Expiry dates show up too, so short-dated stock can be removed and placed elsewhere before it turns into a write-off. Add cost prices, and the inventory report shows how much cash is tied up in stock across the whole fleet.
Dutch operator Vendingland, which covers Benelux and Northern France, built its ordering this way from day one. ‘When we started with Vendon, we prepared orders based on machine-level data,’ said CTO Niels van Noort. ‘This approach reduced product returns and ensured optimal stock levels.’
Your best seller might not be your best earner
As our American friends say, ‘do the math!’ An energy drink selling 12 a week at an 80p margin makes £9.60. A branded cola selling 20 a week at 30p makes £6.00, and it needs refilling more often. The cola tops the sales report, yet the energy drink earns 60% more from the same spiral.
Vendon Cloud’s cost price and profit module puts revenue, cost and profit for every product side by side. Use it to give the earners more facings and the slow movers fewer, machine by machine. Thinking about a new product? Trial it at a handful of sites and compare sell-through per spiral after two or three refill cycles.
Meet Vendon and learn about Vendon’s Stock Control at Vendex North
Tereze Konopecka from Vendon’s sales team will be at Vendex North at Doncaster Racecourse on 11 November on stand 2-4. “If you don’t know how many of last week’s stops were at machines that didn’t need one, come and find me. I’ll show you what routes look like with live stock data.”
Vendex North runs from 10am to 4pm and entry is free. You can register HERE.
You can read more about Vendon from our substantial archive on Planet Vending here.
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