Another Newbie Saying Hi

[choice vending]

Were are u based Craig??

[JustCraig]

I live in Rochdale - hoping to set up aroung Gtr Manchester (Oldham/Rochdale) and West Yorkshire (Halifax area)

[Centurion]

Good evening peeps,

I stumbled upon this forum last night and I have to say I am very impressed. It's great to have a small community of operators sharing their knowledge.

I just thought I would spend a couple of minutes introducing myself and will hopefully become a regular poster on the boards.

Although I am coming here as practically a newbie, I have actually operated a couple of vending rounds in the past (one around 5 years ago) which Included Vending Towers, Beavers, SWP's and some retro arcade machines. The round had 16 sites and about 25 machines in all.

The second round I had was just towers and beavers (or the cheap versions of) and built it up to around a dozen sites and about 30 machines. My sites have always been pubs and bars and have never really looked beyond that.

I have been thinking about getting back in the game for a few months now but When I look around now at the pubs and clubs I used to supply, a vast majority have shut down so although I want to start up again, I also want to approach it with a completely new (and up to date) plan - Hence labelling myself as a newbie (times certainly have changed)

I do have a few other projects on the go (nothing major, I sell a bit on eBay and operate a couple of subscription based sites and a couple of ecommerce suites) that pay me a nice additional income but I do miss being involved in the coin-op business.

I guess my main concerns would be:

1) Would it not be fair to say that we are hitting saturation point with vending?

2) From what I have read takings seem to be in decline from 5 years ago - is it not a worry that this trend will continue? (again I am not active at the moment so this is nothing more than hearsay)

There seem to be many more operators fighting over fewer sites than there used to be (although that is not based on any scientific research - just opinion)

Am I worring too much? Is there still money to be made if starting from scrach? or it this just a big boys game?

Hi Craig. Welcome aboard, From Al and Nic based in Essex

[JustCraig]

Thanks Al and Nic