Westomatic won one gong and shared another at the AV-E Awards; which will come as no surprise to those arriving at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2.
Pictured: Westomatic NSM Tony Greensill, (left), and MD Richard Brinsley
The City of Manchester is spending millions of pounds to create a better first impression. Years ago, visitors would leave the airport and find themselves, within minutes, in an urban jungle that was about as welcoming as ashes in a grate. Now, the route has been transformed and the new ‘first impression’ hints of vibrancy and success, rather than darkness and danger as was formerly the case.
However, it’s thanks to Broderick’s, rather than the local council, that the ‘Manchester Experience’ begins in the arrivals hall: visitors landing at Manchester Airport’s Terminal 2 must think they’ve landed in vending heaven. The various installations are so well appointed that they tempt you to spend, and the stars of the show are sleek, liveried Sigma Touch machines that are capable of drawing more than admiring glances and passing curiosity.
Manchester Vending
Arguably – and hat’s off to Manchester Vending – this is the most impressive automated retail offer in the UK and at its heart is Westomatic.
When ‘Westo’ won the coveted ‘Technical Innovation’ award at Auto Vending E’s Innovation Awards, Managing Director Richard Brinsley bucked the evening’s trend by making a short speech, in which he acknowledged that the award-winning Sigma Touch had been inspired by feedback from operators, many of whom were in the room. It was a nice-touch, much appreciated by the audience, who may or may not have discerned a sense of personal vindication from the tone of Richard’s delivery. When PV met up with him at Vendex, the-morning-after-the-night-before, Richard took a less emotional line.
‘We’ve always had a reputation as innovators’ he said. ‘With Sigma Touch, we’re once again giving operators new opportunities to become better, more effective retailers. I’d like to thank the judges for recognising our contribution in the categories of Technical Innovation and Machine Intelligence.’
‘With Sigma Touch, we’re once again giving operators new opportunities to become better, more effective retailers.’ Richard Brinsley
Richard believes that the secret of Sigma Touch’s success lies in the ‘reliability and popularity of the original Sigma’. Operators are demonstrating confidence in the new machine because ‘the original delivers consistently’, he said.
‘First mover advantage’
‘First mover advantage’ can’t have done the product any harm, either.
Sigma is enjoying great popularity with consumers in hospitals, universities and office buildings all over the country, as well as Manchester’s flagship airport. In fact, it might be argued that this new breed of ‘interactive’ vending machines is literally changing the face of vending. Be that as it may: with a brace of awards fresh on the mantelpiece at Newton Abbot, for Westomatic, commercial success is close enough to Sigma Touch.
