MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- USA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:USAT), ("USAT"), a leader of wireless, cashless payment and M2M telemetry solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries, today announced a large-scale roll out with Five Star Food Service. Five Star Food Service is a full-service vending and micro-markets, office refreshment services and corporate dining company. They are also the largest Canteen franchisee in the United States.
USAT and Five Star Food Service completed the installation of an initial 3,000 ePorts, and the companies have been working together on a continued, rolling installation schedule for an additional 3,000 ePorts over the next few months for a total of 6,000.
"Five Star was an early adopter of cashless payments technology. We partnered with USA Technologies because of their leadership in the market, and their ability to assist us with deployment planning and performance reporting to ensure we were getting the most from our investment," said Alan Recher, President and CEO of Five Star Food Services. "We realized that, in order to capture every sale, increase margins and effectively compete in today's cashless world, we needed to accelerate our deployment and move forward quickly to install ePorts on more of our machines. USAT has been guiding and supporting us every step of the way, and we are already seeing great results."
Analysis of the first three months, post-installation, shows that Five Star Food Service is already logging a 17% year-over-year increase in top line sales - both cash and cashless - on the approximately 2,500 machines that were recently connected to the ePort Connect Service.
"Five Star Food Service is following what we believe to be the typical trajectory for increased sales following ePort installation," said Jim Turner, VP Deployment Planning, USA Technologies, "and we anticipate that the 17% increase in top-line sales will improve over time. As more consumers become aware of the ability to use their credit or debit cards, we expect sales will increase, consumers will begin buying more and more often, and new consumers will be drawn in by speed, convenience and more payment options. It's a win-win."
"USA Technologies has been able to give us the support we needed every step of the way, from installation services, to marketing communications, to consumer research. We are continually impressed by USA Technologies' service, their support and their knowledge of the industry," concluded Recher. "And with the ability for USAT to process payments and offer loyalty programs across our growing base of micro-markets, online and mobile payments, and dining services in addition to accepting mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Softcard and others, we know that we have made an investment in a service partner that will keep us ahead of the curve and continue to help us streamline and grow."
USA Technologies believes that large-scale deployments like this one is another indicator that the vending industry is at an inflection point related to the implementation of cashless. "Five Star's commitment to improving their consumers' experience as well as increasing sales and revenue by implementing USAT's cashless payments service on a broad basis, quickly, is a great example of a market leader that has taken an assertive position on cashless," said Stephen P. Herbert, CEO and Chairman, USA Technologies. "We are proud to have earned the trust and continued business of an industry-leader and valued partner like Five Star."
USA Technologies recently announced that it added 10,000 new connections and 600 customers to its ePort Connect Service in the first quarter of its FY 2015, for a total of 276,000 connections and 7,900 customers to date.
About USA Technologies, Inc.:
USA Technologies is a leader of wireless, cashless payment and M2M telemetry solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries. ePort Connect® is the company's flagship service platform, a PCI-compliant, end-to-end suite of cashless payment and telemetry services specially tailored to fit the needs of small ticket, self-service retailing industries. USA Technologies also provides a broad line of cashless acceptance technologies including its NFC-ready ePort® G-series, ePort Mobile™ for customers on the go, and QuickConnect, an API Web service for developers. USA Technologies has been granted 87 patents; and has agreements with Verizon, Visa, Elavon and customers such as Compass, AMI Entertainment and others. Visit the website at www.usatech.com.
Forward-looking Statements:
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this release, are forward-looking statements. When used in this release, words such as "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "intend", and similar expressions, as they relate to USAT or its management, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of USAT's management, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to USAT's management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including but not limited to, business, financial, market and economic conditions; the ability of USAT to use available data to accurately predict future market conditions and customer behavior; the possibility that all of the expected benefits from adoption of cashless payment and installation of ePorts, including increased sales, will not be realized by all vending operators, or will not be realized to the extent predicted and/or within the expected time period; and whether, and to what extent, new innovations in mobile payment technologies will result in increased sales. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this release speaks only as of the date of this release. Unless required by law, USAT does not undertake to release publicly any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
