Why Vendmanager? ONE
The vending community in the UK is often referred to as a ‘family’. Indeed, many of the leading independent operators are multi-generational, family businesses, of which Millsons Vending Ltd, founded over 50 years ago and based in Tonbridge, Kent, is a perfect example. The operation has a turnover of around £3m and its machine park numbers around 480 units. The majority of its business is in the provision of bespoke vending services for companies and organisations ranging in size from 10 to 10,000 people, be they staff or customers. Millsons has been part of UK buying group The AVS for more than 20 years.
Hugh Millson has welcomed into the business his sons Oliver and Fergus in recent years and now, each of them heads-up a specific part of the operation. With such capable young hands at the wheel and therefore, a little more time available to him, Hugh now has the space to take a broader view of the business – and where it’s going…
Millsons became a customer of SB Software in 2019 and we asked Hugh to recall the reasons that inspired him to call us in. ‘I think I’d sum it up as ‘growing pains’, he says. ‘We had a back-office system of sorts but half the time, the hand-helds didn’t work. There was no ongoing development of the system and when I made enquiries I found out that there were only three or four other companies still using it. It was linked to Sage, which was basically running the show, but it had never been designed for use by vending companies.
‘It was going nowhere. Meanwhile, the business was growing at a reasonable rate, which exacerbated the issues we were experiencing with stock control, planograms, selling prices and meter readings – all of them functions that we were totally dependent on individual members of staff to get right.
‘I say ‘planograms’ but the problem was we had no planograms. Machines were stocked with what the drivers happened to have on the van at the time. I always felt we were borderline when it came to controlling stock, so much so that stocktaking became virtually a monthly activity. Route planning was basically guesswork and reporting and profitability came on the agenda whenever we had a spare five minutes, which was rarely.’ Hugh allows himself a rueful laugh. ‘We needed to do something about it’, he says. ‘We needed to be more up-to-date. We needed to be more professional.’
Why Vendmanager? TWO
‘Customers were asking for more and more information but the invoices we were sending out offered little in the way of detail and the information that we could provide, like meter readings, could be challenge’, Hugh says. ‘Matching cash up to sales was a perennial challenge and back then, most of our business was in cash. That made us vulnerable to ‘bad actors’.’
The opportunities for improvement were numerous, but where to start and why choose the Vendmanager system? ‘I’ll be honest’, Hugh says. ‘We went with Vendmanager purely through recommendation. I think they are the market leaders. In terms of the AVS, I would estimate that 80-90% of the members use Vendmanager. I only tripped over that fact at a meeting, when somebody asked, ‘who uses Vendmanager?’ and a forest of hands went up. They’d all come to the same conclusion in a wholly independent way.’
The first fruit of Millsons adoption of Vendmanager was a new sense of discipline. ‘For the first time, we could see what our top ten best sellers were!’
As time passed, Millsons day-to-day relationship with SB Software began to flourish. Each earned the other’s trust as hitches and snags were identified and overcome. ‘The guys who are at the end of the phone when you need help really know the business, Hugh said. ‘In terms of support, it’s quick. No one in our business has ever accused them of dragging their feet.
‘Many of the problems which, in the old days, would have meant getting in the car to make manual changes to a machine on site can be done easily without leaving the office, so we are heavily reliant on Vendmanager. I’ve found that their good reputation is justified and they fully understand the challenges we face and that’s gold dust, really…’
Why Vendmanager? THREE
‘We have no choice nowadays but to drive efficiencies to remain competitive in the market. Technology is marching on at a fast rate and we have to be open to change’. That’s how Hugh Millson, MD of Kent based Millsons Vending Ltd, opens the next part of our discussion about Millsons partnership with SB Software and Cantaloupe.
‘…we were using just a small part of the systems capabilities and I started to think, ‘what else can it do?’’
But first, he reminisces about an old VHS video recorder. ‘We had this thing and it must have had two dozen buttons on it. We’d had it a couple of years and it dawned on me that I only knew what four of the buttons were for. Vendmanager is like that. To begin with, we were using just a small part of the systems capabilities and I started to think, ‘what else can it do?’
‘We were using Vendmanager to get the most out of today’s incredibly versatile machines. Suddenly, we could accommodate free vends, pay vends, or split pricing on the same machine, depending on the time of the day. Some customers wanted to be able to change the machine status on demand, we were able to say, ‘no problem’.
With every day, we were getting more confident with the system – and then you stumble over some more bells and whistles that you didn’t even know were there…’
That’s how, in December 2024, Millsons added extra functionality to its Vendmanager system. ‘We took on three additional components’, Hugh said. ‘One is the pre-pack system, route planning and finally Visit on Demand, or VOD. Already, they are fundamentally changing the way we run the place.
‘Filling a machine was always such a clunky process. The operator would drive to the site, get out of his van, go to the machine, write down what was needed, go back to the van and pick the order, then return to the machine and fill it up. It was a very time-consuming process. Now, we can ‘dial into’ the machines, find out exactly what they’ve sold and then pre-pack the order, ready to be loaded onto the vans.
‘The VOD feature is also very clever. For example, if someone phones in sick today, I can interrogate the system to see the machines for which we have no option other than to visit the site, instantly highlighting what coverage we need to provide as a bare minimum to keep the ship afloat.
‘As for route planning, once you’ve loaded it, it’s a breeze. It takes the workload and divides it between the available staff resource with the day planned, one call after another. You have to get used to one aspect of the system and come to trust it before you say ‘ok, now let’s go a stage further’. Remember the video recorder?’
Why Vendmanager? FOUR
‘You’re going to ask me about ‘implementation’ now, I suppose?’ asks Hugh, so that’s what we do. ‘Implementation takes time, you have to have faith in it. You move quickly from being in a pit of despair to believing that Vendmanager is the best thing since sliced bread!
‘I’d urge operators who recognise themselves in our story to do what we did and grasp the nettle. Vendmanager has been a complete game changer at Millsons, having a positive impact on every single aspect of our operation. Technically speaking, I’m a happy bunny.’
*Cantaloupe and SB Software would like to thank Hugh and all at Millsons both for their trust in us and for agreeing to share their Why Vendmanager? case history.
Read more on SB Software / Cantaloupe HERE
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