Saying ‘yes’ keeps Pro-Vend in the black. From new and modern equipment to cashless payment acceptance, this long-time independent vending operation based in Prince George, VA, is able to offer locations the innovative vending service and convenient products they want, but at a price all can afford. Current President and General Manager of Pro-Vend, Inc., Jerry Triplett, has worked to increase the value of snacks in order to earn a dollar price point in vending machines and reprice items to produce the desired commission rates requested by certain businesses.
Triplett’s positive client-service provider attitude and focus on sustainable business practices come from a product supplier background, but have worked very well in the vending business and has helped to maintain the company’s positive reputation in the Richmond and Tri-Cities market.
“Our customers know that we are honest and easy to do business with. Integrity is very important in our philosophy,” said Pam Keener, vice-president of sales. “We get very good referrals from our customers – which is a real blessing.” Keener is quick to point out these referrals wouldn’t come without the dedication and hard work of all of Pro-Vend’s employees.
A dream of better service
Established in 1988, Pro-Vend was formed by Michael McNally, a retired Mid Atlantic Coca-Cola executive. He has been chairman and majority stock holder for the last 28 years. Keener has also been with Pro-Vend since the beginning, having started in the Mid Atlantic Coca-Cola customer service department. She worked with Roland Fontaine who became the first president of Pro-Vend and was a driving force in building the company.
“It was corporate changes that brought McNally and Fontaine together to start the company,” Keener said. She joined them, quite nervous, initially, about working with a start-up, but after 28 years, it has all worked out. “Our chairman used to say, ‘You’ll always have partners in the vending business, but you just don’t always know who they are.’ He, therefore, made sure the management team had skin in the game by giving them equity,” Keener explained.
That first year was great for the new business. Keener remembers building up the vending routes quickly and establishing a loyal customer base. “It was very exciting,” she said. “We had all new equipment to place and we had our reputation going for us.
In 1998, Triplett was working for Wonder Bread and Hostess Cake and began looking for a new business opportunity. Pro-Vend provided that vehicle. His responsibility was to develop and grow the coffee business. It became known as Chesterfield Coffee & Tea, so it would be separate in the consumer’s mind from the idea of vending coffee, which had a negative perception.
“Under his leadership the coffee business really grew,” said Keener. Triplett was able to use his convenience store and restaurant contacts from his years with Wonder Bread to break into different markets, really increasing OCS revenues.
Triplett brings a different perspective
He believes in giving a location what they want, even if it’s a high commission, which seems like a strategy to drive Pro-Vend out of business. Instead, it has helped it grow. The secret, according to Triplett, is “you have to have the item priced right, and you need to know your retail space,” he said. While a higher commission and, therefore, a higher price might mean fewer sales, the demands of the location don’t offend or bother Triplett. He considers them just part of doing business. This attitude likely comes from his years working at Wonder Bread. He started there in the mid 1980s working in various jobs, including supervisor for cakes, branch manager and account manager for convenience stores and retail stores. Early in his career, it wasn’t unusual for big food brands to pay stores for space. Paying commissions to locations is very similar to paying for space, in Triplett’s mind. The difference was that large companies looked at the price and sales volume to keep products priced where they needed to be, a practice that he has tried to incorporate into the vending business today.
Pro-Vend currently has a vending management system (VMS). Triplett tracks sales by category using handhelds and then the information is compiled and analyzed.
“I know some operators track it by the specific item, but that’s too much data for me,” said Triplett. He looks at it similar to stocks in mutual funds – instead of looking at each individual one, decisions are made using the average. He does this in his vending business by tracking sales in five categories: drinks, pastry, chips, candy, crackers, gum/mints and tracks those averages routinely.
He does use his VMS for its search capabilities, however. “We might run a report on the locations where we still offer products at a certain price point, then we will work to get those prices increased to the level we need.”
An improved LSS strategy
Increasing prices for good margins has been a recent goal for Triplett, especially in the chip/snack category. Like many vending operators, he offered small and large size bags for his most popular offerings. This, however, took up double the space in the warehouse and trucks. Triplett decided to try just selling large single serving (LSS) and upping the prices. But he used a different approach for each location. For healthcare facilities which were demanding calorie counts be posted near the vending machines, Triplett said he needed just one size snack in order to meet the requirement. He put in only the LSS snacks at a higher price point and the location was happy. In other locations, he imported chips that weren’t locally available. “I was on vacation to Prince Edward Island and found these chips produced in Canada. I talked to the producer and ordered a pallet,” said Triplett. He put the chips in the vending machines for a dollar, explaining to the locations that it was a new chip — therefore a new size and new price.
From his time with Wonder Bread, he knew consumers prefer prices like $.99 or $1.97 to $2.03, which kept him from embracing LSS snacks when they first came out a number of years ago. LSS snacks at that point would have meant prices that exceeded what customers would pay. Now that prices have gone up even on small size snacks, it was easy to switch to LSS when he could start by charging $1 for them and it has been an incredible success.
He has found, too, that while specialty chips helped him break through location price sensitivity, he doesn’t need to carry the product all the time. Once the location is comfortable with the new, higher prices, he can start offering traditional flavors and brands, but in the LSS packages.
“We are now 100 percent LSS, and didn’t lose any sales,” said Triplett. “And the drivers love it [because it reduces the number of products they need to load into the machine].”
Opting for more frequent service
An increased level of customization and service is part of the reason why Pro-Vend doesn’t utilize pre-kitting. “We service accounts more frequently than we probably have to,” admitted Keener, “but it’s our choice – what we decide to do. The driver always changes it up with more variety. It gives it a more personal touch. It’s all part of how Pro-Vend strives to assure customers that the company and employees are designing a vending and coffee program just for their location,” said Keener.
Triplett agreed, saying “Service is more important than decreasing the number of times you visit a location.” Pro-Vend also has such high route density, that Triplett doesn’t believe he could decrease more than a single route with pre-kitting and that would affect his level of service. It isn’t something he is likely to do in the near future as Pro-Vend’s reputation for service has been part of its legacy.
“We have a lot of the same accounts as we did when we started in 1988,” explained Keener. She freely admits the company isn’t the largest in the area or the first to adopt the newest technology, but customers can count on Pro-Vend service because each employee is committed to keeping their word. “We try our best to keep our promises and if we mess up, we admit it and try to fix it.”
Another employee who excels at providing excellent customer service is Bill Lester, an additional sales manager who also started at Wonder Bread. He was a senior manager of Scott Paper for almost 20 years and later owned his own brokerage firm. “He is an important liaison with our customers, helps to grow our business and is a people person, which is very important,” said Keener.
Many of the Pro-Vend team have long-time and invaluable experience. “Butch Puckett, our senior supervisor, has been on our team for more than 25 years,” said Keener. “He started as a route man at 19 years old at Mid Atlantic Coca-Cola and is a wealth of knowledge.” Keener considers him a huge asset by helping to keep the routes running smoothly as well as managing the daily issues in the shop.
Mechanics John Moody and Rob Knowles have both been with Pro-Vend for more than 25 years and are excellent at what they do. “They, with the additional help of Jonathan Hankins, keep up with the ever changing technological needs in our business and customers love them,” said Keener. “We are very fortunate to have numerous other hard working employees who have been with us over 15 years and are a big part of Pro-Vend’s success,” added Keener. She knows that Pro-Vend customers appreciate their experience, dependable service and friendly attitude.
Healthy vending sinks commissions
While commissions aren’t a problem for Pro-Vend, Keener notices they aren’t requested as often as they used to be. “It’s just something to work through with new lines and healthier products where we try to be on the forefront of what is available,” she said. In fact, Keener has noticed an increase in the number of locations paying the vending operator to subsidize healthy items. “It’s a new thing employers are doing. It keeps healthier products available in the breakroom and at a lower price than traditional items. This way healthier options are more appealing to workers, due to the lower price, when deciding on something to eat or drink,” she said.
Pro-Vend offers a number of great-selling, healthier food options made by a family owned, local catering company, but there are also an increasing number of snacks that are meeting the consumer’s desire for “better-for-you” selections that taste good. “Some of the really popular options include baked chips, fruit items with less calories and fat, as well as a wide variety of protein and granola bars,” said Keener. The operation isn’t afraid to try new products in its machines to see what sells. “We are told by our suppliers we are quick to try new things,” said Keener. “We are always taking samples around to our locations.”
While Pro-Vend is quick to test new products, the operation is more cautious with technology. They only started adding cashless readers to machines when two-tier pricing became available in 2012. Triplett has seen a real improvement in sales in locations where a cashless reader has been added. “I never would have dreamed I could get a $3 item to sell in a vending machine,” he said. The accounts that do the highest cashless sales are military facilities and universities. He certainly can track incremental sales increases thanks to his cashless acceptance.
Micro markets were another new technology that Pro-Vend wanted to watch and consider. “2016 will be our year to do it,” confirmed Keener. “Our operation has already presented the idea to numerous locations where the concept would likely work well.”
Vending is a core business
Vending remains a large part of Pro-Vend’s business, especially drinks and snacks. Pro-Vend is working to expand its vending service to smaller locations, 50 to 90 employees. However, it won’t just be for vending. “Those revenues are good, but we also want the office coffee service and water service. It makes it a much more profitable decision,” Triplett said. “It also makes us more valuable to our customer when we are a one-stop-service company,” added Keener.
One way Pro-Vend has earned new business is through offering updated vending machines to customers. Triplett uses the Revision Door on used vending equipment to give it an update. The Revision Door comes with eye-catching, energy saving LED lights and a cashless payment system which increases sales. Triplett brings these in each month to upgrade existing accounts.
Chesterfield Coffee & Tea
Since he joined Pro-Vend, coffee has been the segment Triplett has tried to grow. That won’t be changing in the near future. It already represents 15 percent of Pro-Vend total sales, but he wants to reach 30 percent. Nearly all the coffee he offers is the Chesterfield Coffee & Tea private label. He offers coffee in multiple roasts, but follows the trends of his customers. “People are getting more into the dark roasts, especially in the South,” he commented. He also has a Chesterfield single-cup solution to offer locations, as single-cup sales are booming in the area.
“Frozen coffee is really popular right now, too,” added Keener. It comes in a brick and is put in a tabletop machine that dispenses it by the cup. “It’s a little more expensive than brewing coffee, but there’s no waste and no clean up.”
Chesterfield Coffee & Tea has expanded the company’s coffee service beyond workplaces, to convenience stores and restaurants, too, all by offering better service. These establishments appreciate having someone to call when a machine is down. “The profit margins are better and we can provide coffee service to 10 restaurants for what it costs to provide one vending account done right with good margins,” said Triplett.
There’s no doubt that being a local business helps keep Pro-Vend strong. It’s able to adapt to the needs of its customers, from more frequent service stops to pricing for commissions to a focus on healthy vending. The team takes pride in their nearly 30 year old “yes ” reputation for good service.
