Vendition Ltd wrote: .... But does depend how saturated your area is!
Spot on regarding saturation in some areas. Having worked with 100's of operators over the years, some areas are so saturated that I have had to close the area down due to no sites available that are worthwhile. It is very frustrating for both sides. Getting good sites in today's market is very time consuming and a lot more skill required, also due to many large chains closing the door there is even less to go at. Gone are the days when success rates were 90% .....
I think the golden era for this business was around the late noughties and for a few years after, people who started back then had loads of potential to expand quickly because the machines were still relatively new. I started in 2011 and still found it relatively easy to find new sites but even then the big family pubs/soft play areas and other high performing sites were mostly already taken around my area. In my experience it is now very difficult to find really good sites which means you have to have a LOT of ok/low performing sites to even make minimum wage type earnings in this business if you actually cost your time.
Quinch wrote:I think the golden era for this business was around the late noughties and for a few years after, people who started back then had loads of potential to expand quickly because the machines were still relatively new. I started in 2011 and still found it relatively easy to find new sites but even then the big family pubs/soft play areas and other high performing sites were mostly already taken around my area. In my experience it is now very difficult to find really good sites which means you have to have a LOT of ok/low performing sites to even make minimum wage type earnings in this business if you actually cost your time.
Disagree with that Quinch. There may not be the good sites around but if you are only getting minimum wage for your time you are visiting your machines far too often.
Ive got my sites I visit weekly, I have some I visit monthly, some bi monthly etc. My worst ones I visit every 5/6 months but I generally around £35/40 even from the really poor ones and these tend to be charity sites so only 10% commission. Way more than minimum wage. You just need a hell of a lot of sites if they are poor.
My problem is I get about 70% of my money from 20% of my sites.
What I mean is it's hard to find new good sites now and hypothetically if you're starting in vending now and end up with a lot of low performing sites then even making minimum wage (£320 a week approximately) is potentially going to be difficult. I have a mix of good, ok and low performing sites as I imagine most people have who have been in this business for several years but I think it's harder to achieve that mix nowadays
Probably right mate. I worked out yesterday that I get over 70% of my income from my top 20 sites. I get 40% of my income from my top 4 sites. All play barns.
Ive got 180 sites. Only 36 averaged £50 per month or more last year.
Thanks for all the reply's, I appreciate all the info. I fully understand it all boils down to the sites. I would be interested to also hear from any other franchise holders or solo operators in the southeast & Greater London areas. Perhaps some of you would share some stories, about some of the strangest locations you may of had, or ones you thought were going to be a total waste of time but turned out ok.
180 machines is a big investment not just in cash terms but stock/time management as well, I presume that it is not a solo effort.
Once I have all my sites up and running and a few months data, it will be interesting to see how the averages stack up, hopefully I will get lucky, as with all, time will tell.
