Tips for building a round/realistic income?

[paul@optimalvend]

Hi,

I see there is a lot of discussion on this board about towers/tubz vending etc.. and how much you can/can't make from them. I can't see too much mention of what I as a newbie would call a vending machine dispensing drinks and sweets/crisps.

I am interested to hear other peoples experiences on what machines should take on a weekly basis as I acquired my first machine last week which is sited at a roofing trade/wholesalers with fairly steady footfall. I was slightly gutted that from Wed to Sat it appeared to have taken less then £5. Is this normal?

I understand this seems to be an economies of scale type market where only at much larger numbers of machines will you start to see a good return. Based on what I have been told (could be wrong!) about 10 machines installed will yield a weekly profit of about £500.

Anyway, it would be good to hear peoples stories on how they acquired sites in the first place and how much can be made from the machines.

Thanks

Paul

[Snackmore]

Obviously depends on the site. Location, location, location!

The same machine with the same stock at different sites could do as little as you quote above (I would remove asap when you find a new site if this is the average weekly turnover.

A machine should do minimum of £50 a week IMO to turn the stock over. I have sites that do that going up to £200 a week. I am aware of others having sites hitting £500 a week - your leisure centres etc will hit that easily.

With one machine you have to be very careful on the stock you purchase as crisps will go out of date if you by 12 boxes of 48 for example.

It's not easy and a constant bloody struggle, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

I think that people fall in love with the idea of vending thinking they will make a fortune with little effort.

I have found this not to be the case although do know of others (Matt) that have made millions and have to bury their cash in the garden!

[Rossi fan]

Really, £200 and £500 pw on towers. Are you referring to large snack machines.

Paul

[Siting Services]

Yes I think he is talking about drinks and snack machines.

[paul@optimalvend]

Thanks for the info!

I will give it a whirl for a few weeks and if it doesn't pick up move it to my work. the plan is to buy one for work anyway and take it from there.

I can imagine there is a lot of appeal as on the face of it the business model looks "easy" but I for one minute wouldn't suggest that. As ever in life you get out what you put in. So fair enough the machine is doing it's own thing but surely you need to be doing all the work behind the scenes to make sure it sells as much as it can, buy at the best price, don't get left with out of date stock, work on getting machines installed at sites and no doubt 1000 other things to make it a success.

Really admire you guys that have been in the industry and succeeded as your work ethic must be second to none.

thanks

Paul

[Coin Operated Group]

Most annoying thing is when the site decides it wants an upgraded machine, even though the one they have has been on site for 12 months only and theres nothing wrong with it. Happens quite a bit, we just try and forget !!

[paul@optimalvend]

Ha, can imagine that is a pain!

That's something else I am trying to weigh up - go into a business with promises of top of the range machines to add to the premium pricing on the healthy goods I am going to vend or stock with refurb second hand machines from ebay/other vending companies.

Obviously one method will require 5-6 figure outlay/funding (which I obviously don't have!) the other is more realistic but could be slower to take off given the machinates will not impress as much...

Few tough decisions to be made soon!

[Style]

Dont spend a load of money until you know it works. start with second hand, you can always upgrade them.

Andy