On Friday the 24th September, at WestWays Towers we are holding a coffee morning in support of the amazing charity, Macmillian Cancer Support. We will have a tombola, cake stall (which is sounding rather scrummy!) and, of course, hot drinks from our Kenco Coffee Machines!

We are participating in this worthwhile cause as cancer is an illness that affects most of us in different forms. Whether as a sufferer, or seeing a loved one going through the experience, Macmillian can help support people through the hard times. They offer finanical support, helping people living with cancer and their families with benefit advice. Macmillian also provide someone to talk to- whether to ask questions to or find a support group to belong to. Macmillian want to give people living with cancer good days to stop their bad days.

This year Kenco coffee are the partner for Macmillian coffee morning; as such we will be serving Kenco coffee, as well as PG Tips Tea, Suchard hot chocolate and Kenco Cappio for a small price going to a fabulous cause. There will be home made cakes, such as fairy cakes, millionaires shortbread and lemon drizzle cake. We have also had lots of donations for the tombola: there will be many alcoholic bottles (perfect for the weekend!), chocolate’s and sweets (have spied some Terry’s Chocolate Orange) and also smellies (great for you or great for Christmas pressies!!).

Please come down and help us with all the cake! Come to Unit 2 Apex Business Park, Diplocks Way, Hailsham, BN27 3JU between 10.30 and 1pm on Friday 24th. If you are unable to join us (and have a jolly good reason!) please donate to this worthy cause at: http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Donate/Donate.aspx.

Written by: Katie from WestWays.

An advert for an insurance company in Australia has been banned. The advert shows Sam Thaiday, an Australian rugby player shaking a vending machine which results in lots of products falling out. The Australian Advertising Standards Board banned the ad as they say that it depicts theft, as the rugby player may have paid for one or two items- but certainly not all the items that came out of the machine.

As a vending operator we have machines located on many different sites, including schools, leisure centres, offices and factories. Theft is something that does concern us, but has happened very rarely since we have been in business. This could be the relationships that we have with our customers or that most people are very honest: in the past we have been told if the machine is vending items free of charge or if an operator has accidentally left a door open. While watching the Australian ad, what concerned me the most wasn’t the theft was the rugby player pushing the machine. As mentioned in other blogs, vending machines are incredibly heavy pieces of equipment. Showing someone pushing against one is quite irresponsible- if that machine falls it could lead to serious injuries or even death.

Written by: Katie from WestWays

On my travels through the internet looking and researching about vending machine’s and coffee I have found this rather interesting blog about vending machine history. It mainly focuses on American vending machine history, but it’s still a good read!

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending

As well as supplying Kenco coffee products and vending machines WestWays also service vending equipment. It may be equipment that a company has owned for a long time and requires an engineer to fix or it could be something bought privately that needs some work and a service on it. We may not have sold the equipment or supplied the stock- but that doesn’t stop our engineers being able to work on your equipment.

Our engineers are fully trained to service all the major manufactures vending machines including Crane, Coffetek, Azkoyen and Kenco and they know most coffee machines, snack machines and can machines. Not only are they vending engineers but they are actual engineers- if something electrical is broken or needs modifying they are there with their trusty tool kits! One of our engineers loves his Blackberry phone so much that he has taken it apart, cleaned and repaired it himself many times: we can’t believe its still going after all these years (not that we would recommend this as it may invalidate warranties!!). They will endeavour to fix anything that is put in front of them, if it’s a machine that they have not come across before we will endeavour to obtain a technical manual and the manufaturers contact details.

As well as wanting all your servicing work, WestWays also believe in charging fairly. We have had to use other service companies in the past for holiday cover and we where shocked at how they charged us. One company charged from the time the engineer switched off his engine to the time he turned it back on again, another for the time that the engineer waited on the premises for someone to show him where the machine is. WestWays do not charge like this: we allow waiting time for the engineer and only charge from when he starts work on the equipment to when he stops. Because of this the engineers have built a good rapport with our customers; as they are on the road all the day they may stop in a cafe on site to have a drink or some lunch, or may stretch their legs looking around retail premises.

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending

We, at WestWays Towers, are rather excited about a new product launch. We have known it was coming for a while but we finally have Milka bars from Kraft to put into our vending machines dotted around Kent, Sussex and Surrey!!

Milka is distinctive with its lilac-colour packaging. It has a smooth and creamy taste which is accredited to the alpine milk that comes from the Swiss alps. It has a distinctive taste which you will always remember, and if you have never had it then you really are missing out!!

You may have seen the advertising TV campaign for Milka, if not here it is my favourite is the cow-tractor. Milka has been around for ages, but the product has been relaunched with new 45g size bars, which we are selling through our machines. There are also different varities of bars such Milka-Daim, Milka Hazlenut, Milka Happy Cows (my fave- milk and white chocolate) and Milka chocolate cream.

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending

You may notice that as well as new machines WestWays also sell refurbished equipment. But, as a customer – what does refurbished equipment mean for you?

We have several sources of supply for refurbished machines: customers who are replacing their current equipment, refurbished machine suppliers and we also buy vending equipment from people getting rid of theirs. These machines come into our warehouse and are assessed by our trained engineers. The engineers may decide that it may not worth refurbishing the machine as it may require too much work or they won’t be able to bring the machine up to grade for a customers premises. If this is the case, the engineers will strip the machine: take off parts that they can reuse. This is part of our environmental policy: we will never scrap anything that we can reuse with a bit of work.

If the engineers deem the vending machine as good – then their work starts. Obviously, it varies from machine to machine- as refurbishing a coffee machine is different to a cold drinks machine and what state the equipment is in to start with. As a rule of thumb: the engineers start by cleaning the machine: which is what Will was doing when he was on work experience with us. People tend to think that being an engineer is quite glamorous, but they spend quite a large amount of their time with their hands in rubber gloves cleaning parts! When the clean is over the engineers start testing the machine, normally this means seeing what is working on the machines. If a part isn’t working they replace it if they cannot repair it.

After they test the machine, make sure everything is doing what its supposed to be doing, they then PAT test it. Sometimes problems that will come out in the future, such as boilers not heating, show up in the PAT test and it also gives our customers piece of mind that their electrical equipment has been properly checked out. I heard a horror story about a machine being delivered directly from manufacturer onto site which had been wired wrongly: when the machine was plugged in it gave whoever touched it an electrical shock!! We have never had a problem like this as we thoroughly check the machine over before it leaves and the engineers test fully with products to make sure there are no safety issues.

Once the engineer is happy that the machine is performing well, their last job is to make sure the machine looks good. The WestWays general rule is that the machine needs to look like new and not to give our engineers big heads but they normally achieve this high standard. Sometimes it just takes a bit of spit and polish and the machine scrubs up alright, but sometimes glass has to be replaced in snack machines, decals changed on can machines and whole doors on beverage machines. Our engineers do like a challenge!

All in all, we like to give our customers piece of mind that while their refurbished machine may not be new and had a former home that our engineers will do all that they can to make the machine like new. A second hand machine does not mean a second rate machine.

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending

We at WestWays Vending aim to be flexible to all our lovely customers needs. We offer an operated service and also a self-fill service on our machines.

We have many different machines from you to choose from. We have (deep breath here!) Kenco coffee machines, in-cup vending machines, fresh ingrediant beverage machines, Cadbury snack machines, unbranded snack machines, small snack machines which you can have a coffee machine on top of, Coca Cola cold drink machines, Lucozade drinks machines, unbranded can machines which can vend bottles or cans (or both!) and combination machines (which are half snack and half cold drink) and probably a lot more that I have forgotten!!

Operated Service

With an operated service we take control of everything. One of our lovely operators will visit on a schedule determined on the usage of the machine. The operator will fill the machine, collect money (if it is not a ‘free vend’ machine) and clean the machine.

Mike, our operations manager will keep a close eye on products that are selling on the machine- if there are product lines that aren’t selling then he takes them out and if there are products that are selling out then he puts more in. It’s a very complicated science. But, in essence it means that we take all the stress of worrying about stock, cash handling, cleaning and all those bits and leaves you to concentrate on other parts of your business.

Self Fill

However, if you want to have close control over your vending machines – maybe you have catering staff or you are looking to add revenue to your business by charging your customers. For example, one of our sell fill customers is a children’s soft play centre- we installed a snack machine from them and they order snacks for it every week. The site have a person responsible for the snack machine to ensure that it is cleaned and filled regularly. They are used to handling food items so storing and rotating stock is no problem for them.

Another of our customers who likes to self fill is a plumbers merchant- we installed a Darenth Style 5 for them to enable the customer to give out free drinks to his customer. By using self fill he can keep an eye on how many free drinks he is giving out enabling him to keep his costs low.

Or maybe, you would like both. We have have a few customers which we operate and the customer self-fills other machines on site- for example you may want to offer your staff drinks on an operated service but you may want to have vending machines which you fill for them on an out of hours service?

As you can see, both operated vending and DIY self fill options have their good points- but really it depends on the solution that you want to offer within your business. Our sales team have a lot of experience in problem-solving and their knowledge of vending is next to none. As I said before, we are flexible: whatever your needs are we will find a way to fulfil them!

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending

After Cadburys had been taken over by Kraft foods- owners of the Kenco Coffee Company- we knew there would be changes in store. Kraft would want to make this popular brand even more popular. It looks like one of the ways that they are looking at to diversify Cadburys is buy agreeing to launch the Cadbury Cocoa House – their own coffee shops. It is thought that Kraft will not be financially backing this venture- but a group of retail entrepreneurs will be.

It will be a hard market to penetrate as the coffee shop market is already saturated. Early reports say that the shops may have in house chocolatiers to make giant versions of our favourite chocolate bars such as Twirls, Curley Wurleys and Flakes that are able to wrapped up to take home. The Cadbury Cocoa House is also going to launch affordable afternoon teas and yummy hot chocolates.

It looks like the first Cadbury Cocoa House will be opened in London by the end of the year… I can’t wait!!

Written by: Katie from WestWays Vending