Benefits of Using DEX in your Operations

The one reason that vending companies install software management solutions and choose to utilize DEX is to better control cash shortages and product shrinkages in their operations. This is where a software system working with DEX data can provide tremendous control.

Traditionally, the first method that Antares vending operators as well as other operators used to use to reconcile cash was comparing cash collected to product sold out of a vending machine. While this method can work, it requires that a driver inventory a machine every time cash is collected.

This method can be completely circumvented by a driver ‘running his own product’ through the machines. In that case, the driver makes out like a bandit by running his product through your assets.

Cash and vend meter methods

The second method that Antares operators can use for controlling cash is the use of a vend meter in a single-priced machine, or a cash meter in multi-priced machines. This method is dependent on the driver accurately recording the meter readings. Capturing the cash meter reading electronically from an Antares vending machine via a DEX reading during the service tightens up most of this process. The driver can never sell his own product through the machine.

DEX: The bottom line

If you use DEX in most or all the machines in your Antares vending operation by Antares Corporation, you will have two distinct advantages when it comes to controlling cash collected from the vending machines. These are:

· They are capable of selling all cash differences on the same day the driver returns, or as soon as the cash is collected.

· They can plug forever the change fund loophole.

Tracking individual products

Most operators would love to have item-level sales data from each vending machine, but few are willing to pay the price of collecting the data. DEX by itself isn’t much help since it doesn’t know what is in each column. But if you marry the DEX column sales data with a handheld computer that knows the product selection or planogram in each machine, you will get all your item level sales during the DEX reading, which takes about five to 15 seconds!

Nutrition and Vending

A route driver in your vending business by Antares Corporation should be concerned about obesity and nutrition. This issue’s impact on our industry affects everyone in the industry. Consumers are reading and hearing about obesity and nutrition. The route drivers are the ones that come in frequent contact with them, so they will look at the route drivers for answers.

There have been false accusations made against the vending industry, claiming that the industry is basically responsible for school children being obese. One of the reasons for this concern about obesity in children is the increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. There are a large percentage of children age 6 to 19 that are overweight. This is almost double the rate of two decades ago. In addition to this, about two out of three adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Any vending business, including your Antares vending operation has to take notice of these figures, and act accordingly.

Obesity

This is complex problem with no easy solutions. It is not caused by any single factor or food that may have been purchased from vending machines or elsewhere. Consuming more calories from any food source than is expected through physical activity is the scientific equation that results in weight gain.

Your Antares vending customers are becoming more health conscious than before, and the industry is shifting to meet their needs. Here are the top five trends:

· Eating better: Focus on making modest changes to promote healthy eating.

· Carb counting: More people than ever are looking for lower carb and higher protein products.

· Healthier kids: This is another media driven trend. Families are looking for quick and healthy options as the incidence of overweight and obesity grows for children.

· Eating for change: Individuals are seeking food choices that improve a condition, such as elevated cholesterol or hypertension.

· “Must have” ingredients: Nearly half of the American population recognizes functional foods as a benefit.

People are definitely hearing the message about the importance of a healthy diet, so this is the reason why you have to carry health products it in your Antares vending business.

How to Increase your Market Value

A business is mostly valued for the cash flow and the predictability or stability of that cash flow. Because if the cash flow is predictable, the assets and the franchise that create the cash flow will hold their value.

If you are operating your Antares routes to make a living, it may not affect you much. But if an exit strategy is being considered, or if you bought the business to enhance it and sell it, then you might be interested in increasing the value of your business.

Market value

When you would want to consider the market value of your Antares vending business, you must first consider new and existing locations, not only for their past performance, but in light of any trends that might affect their future performance. Imagine the future value of your vending location as if you were a prospective property owner. Buyers will look for locations as one component of risk. Low growth locations would be a risk. The next step would be for you to quantify the average life span of your equipment and its replacement value. This is something that a prospective buyer will want to know. This is the reason why it is important to purchase quality equipment like those that are provided by Antares Corporation. Thirdly, any buyer would definitely ask you about your customer retention rate and recent growth rates. These are numbers that you should be well aware of. Proof of high retention rate or growth rates add stability to your cash flow stream.

How secure is what you have to offer

Lastly, you would need to find ways to increase the predictability or stability of your cash flow by “locking in” your accounts. A prospective buyer would immediately place a greater value on a portfolio of vending locations if they were backed up by one year or multi year contracts. If contracts don’t work for you, then you can have some form of exclusivity to offer the customer, such as an unusual brand or an unusual price on a particular product.

Remember that if you can boast of a stable or growing cash flow in your Antares vending business, and have the kind of locations and retention rates that allow for comfortable projections of the same, then it all means that you are the owner of a valuable commodity in today’s investment environment.

The Full Benefit of Exception Reports

Fuel costs can increase; product costs fluctuate; and labor cost percentages go up and down based upon how hard or how smart people work. Professionals understand that every significant change in the numbers represents either a problem that must be solved or an opportunity that must be acted upon if they expect to deliver the budgeted bottom line. Most professionals agree that even a monthly statement is not quick enough to give them all the knowledge they need on a timely basis. By the time the monthly P & L report come out, the problem or opportunity could be 5 or 6 weeks old.

A standby tool

Rather than wait for up to six weeks, you as an Antares operator can depend upon weekly, or even daily, exception reports to manage your Antares vending operation on a timely basis. An exception report only lists anomalies, i.e. only those items that vary from pre-determined or pre-established norms. They can relieve you of the need to review all of the numbers because you only need to look at the numbers that require attention.

Well designed exception reports provide early warning of problems or opportunities, particularly with regard to the vital signs. In vending they usually include: 1) sales, 2) costs of goods sold, 3) direct labor, and 4) vehicle costs.

Exception sales reports

Any significant change, up or down, in the level of sales at Antares locations, should provoke a management response. If the sales are on the increase then management needs to examine the service frequency and the level of equipment at the location. If nobody takes the time to do this, the machines in these locations would run empty. Decreasing sales should also provoke a management response. Get to know the reason for the problem and try and find a solution for the problem. If the problem cannot be solved, then it would become necessary to renegotiate the relationship with the location.

Exception sales reports, average daily sales reports, direct labor cost exception reports and vehicle cost exception reports will all help you get a head start in solving any problems in your Antares business before they become budget busters. These are just some of the typical exception reports. If they run on an exception basis, they will point you in the right direction without spending countless hours reading through reams of information. In other words, they are action reports.

Business Planning for your Vending Business

Antares operators are facing the most challenging business environment ever. This is the reason that they need a plan that gives them direction. The plan will state how resources will be allocated over a given period of time. Most operators are too busy to plan more then a day ahead. Success in any industry requires planning, long term and short term.

A challenging environment

The past years had come with some unforeseen challenges for automatic merchandising. An economic recession hit at a time when technology was offering a host of new possibilities. Operating costs have risen while opportunities to increase sales have eluded most operators.

The current economic situation gives all size companies sufficient cause to take the time to establish a business plan. This would be the best time to do it. The business plan is a company’s road map to the future. It would organize “hard data” in a way that would give your Antares operation direction. The more “hard data” your business has, the better you can set goals for your business, as well as monitor its performance.

What it does for you

A business plan would show management how it should deploy its resources over a specific time period in an effort to maximize returns. It would cover the use of all company resources, including human resources. Most vending operators operate under a nebulous plan. A business plan for your Antares business should consist of both quantitative goals (increase sales by 5 percent) and qualitative goals (improve employee morale).

Planning needed now more than ever

The current state of the vending industry makes planning more imperative than ever. The current business climate requires more direction than in the past. Customer needs are less uniform than ever. An Antares operator serving a large metropolitan area needs to understand the demographics of his customer base. This would of course require you to gather information. The equipment that is being used is offering more possibilities than ever before, because of new technology. The new technologies offer enhanced customer service, but require additional investment.

A business plan should be seen as an enhancement of the company budget. Where the budget comprises the “bones” of the plan, the planning addresses the “vision,” and describes how the company’s goals will be met.

Forklift Training in Vending

The forklift is a staple in the running of a vending business, whether it is a small or large vending business. These automobiles move around vending machines or blocks of product and represent a huge boon to the vending industry.

There are a number of considerations that an Antares vending operator must keep in mind. If you have an untrained person handling the forklift, he might make mistakes by not knowing the forks are always supposed to be pointed in the uphill direction on inclined surfaces. They may not also be able to move the load properly by failing to respect the industry standard 2-4 inches above the ground, which is usually adequate to skirt bumps in the floor. To avoid all this happening in your vending business by Antares Corporation, training your workers would be a good idea.

Employees will resist at first

You shouldn’t be surprised if your employees mumble and gripe about having to sit through a day of training, involving filling out tests and watching the instructional video. Taking that sort of time is what really drills it in.

Easy materials to grasp

The training material that you use to train your workers should be easy to grasp. The employees of you Antares vending business would not want to spend the whole day going over complicated material. The basic guidelines are how to get on and off the forklift, bracing oneself with two hands and one foot when in contact with the unit. In addition to this, one should never jump on or off from a forklift.

Forklifts maneuver differently

When driving a forklift, you will find that it has a tighter turning radius and turns off its front wheels. This is so unlike a car which pivots off its rear wheels. So when going round a bend, you have to give the rear end time to clear the turn. Having a person or people trained in driving a forklift will lead to efficiency in the transportation of the products around the warehouse. Since the workers will be well trained, that means the chances of accidents are reduced.

Forklift training for the workers of your Antares vending business is essential. Forklifts are widely used in many vending operations, so to ensure safety during its use, make sure that it is only run by trained workers.

Word of Mouth is a Key Marketing Tool

Word of mouth is the act of a customer sharing his or her experience with another person. A recommendation or a tip passed from one customer to another by word of mouth provides credibility, reduces doubt in the customer’s mind and also plays a critical factor in the customer’s final selection or purchasing decision.

A reason to talk about your service

Word of marketing is giving customers a reason to talk about your Antares vending business. Word of mouth marketing is about the actions you take to empower your current customers to build upon their natural desire to share positive experience with others.

Start with your foundation

Do the consumers at your customer locations know the name of your company? If they don’t, you need to make sure that they get to know the name. Here are some suggestions of how you can empower consumers to spread the word about your Antares vending business by Antares Corporation.

· Empower your customers to share positive experiences with their friends and families who work for other companies. A satisfied customer is the greatest third party endorsement.

· Create unique incentives for these customers to take action by maybe conducting free product giveaways.

· Listen to your customers. Open a two way dialogue; address their feed back whether it’s a positive, negative or neutral comment. Provide the Antares customers with feedback tools, such as online forms.

· Stay in contact with your customers and provide them with information that’s relevant and useful to them.

· Be visible and accessible at all times, especially in places where your target market is looking for information. Start with identifying the places that your potential customers may hear about your Antares vending business.

· Identify the influencers who provide your prospect and customer base with business, management or financial advice.

These influencers serve clients everyday and give them innovative ways to improve their business. Communicate to these people how your Antares vending business is critical to their clients. Word of mouth can really help in the successful running of your business.

Vendors Learn the Benefits of Internet Commerce

The Internet is having an impact on everybody’s life, both business and personal. Even automatic merchandising, known for its slowness to change, has shown signs of utilizing e-commerce. E-commerce will enable Antares vendors to conduct all types all types of transactions faster and more accurately. The ability to access resources over the Internet has already given vending managers new tools in the areas of parts ordering, product ordering, rebate management and even equipment buying.

Antares vending operators will in the future use the internet to order products and access all types of information.

E-commerce includes many applications

When a business “goes online,” it may do so initially for one reason, such as being able to communicate to branch managers via email. Your Antares operations will soon find it needs to be able to make use of the same tools to maintain its competitive edge.

Are online transactions secured?

Some vending and foodservice managers have expresses concerns about security of online transactions. Web based ordering can be secure by using encryption. Encryption software is not cost prohibitive and is readily available. There are some vending operators that believe similar savings will occur when vend product distributors start taking orders online. The food service industry is several years ahead of vending in Internet-based order entry.

Vendors are not asking for it

The system that you use for your vending business should be capable of offering online ordering. However, customer feedback has indicated that there isn’t enough operator interest to justify the investment.

Several vend product distributors reported developing online ordering programs. Some said they were uncertain that enough operators would take advantage of it. Earlier attempts to implement centralized ordering alienated vendors, who complained that there wasn’t enough personal sales support.

The benefits of internet based order entry have proven themselves over time. The vending industry should take advantage of this. Manufacturers and distributors have to believe that enough operators will utilize these systems before they invest in them. There are a number of Antares operators as well as other vending operators that are making use of the internet in their business transactions, so this is something that will slowly happen.

Bottlers and Vendors

Partnerships are the basis of strong marketing organizations. With soft drink franchisers placing more emphasis on vending, many bottlers feel that they could benefit from better relations with their vendor customers.

They have realized that the popularity of PET bottles promises exceptional growth through vending. It also came to their attention that full time vendors can make it happen faster than they can alone. Wireless technology, improved machine design and enhanced user-friendliness also bring a lot to the table.

You can decide on a partnership with a bottler for your Antares business because it will be beneficial for both you and the bottler. Capital expenditures that have been brought about by new technology make partnerships more critical than before.

Some Antares operators have made complaints in the past about being undersold by bottlers. At the same time bottlers have their own stories of vendors refusing to follow business agreements.

Time for new and better dialogue

Both sides need to take a ground-zero approach. Bottlers and Antares vendors must be willing to share long term sales and profit goals. This is something that is being practiced by few.

It is important that bottlers realize that Antares vendors need to make a fair profit. At the same time, the vendors need to realize that disregarding placements terms creates bad long term relations. For all this to happen, dialogue is needed.

A relationship between vendors and bottlers can prove to be beneficial in so many ways. To start with, there is a lot that vendors and bottlers can learn from each other. This is just one of the many benefits that will come about by these partnerships.

There is so much at stake with PET bottles and electronic technology. This will be a reason for vendors and bottlers alike to approach their relations from ground zero.