Televend is still a family- and management-owned business, and the decision to move forward in North America was accelerated by their partnership with the newly appointed CEO, Jim Mitchell.
“The North American vending market is the largest opportunity in the world for our services. Televend has been growing rapidly throughout Europe, very successfully over the last 15 years,” said Mitchell. “When it came time to move to North America, the founder and his team started researching and looking for a partner who they could work with, who knew the market, knew the players, and had done it before. It took them some time, but when I met them about a year ago, we realized it was quite a perfect match, having successfully built and sold Company Kitchen, a technology-based company. To further ensure the successful launch of Televend, I have my former team at Company Kitchen fully engaged in the business,” he added.
What sets Televend apart
At the NAMA Show, Televend will showcase its Universal Control Module. This device interfaces between the VMC and payment systems, taking full control of any machine and communicating bi-directionally between the Televend Cloud and each machine in real time.
Additionally, the Universal Machine Controller enables the Televend Cloud to act as an AI-driven platform. Combined, these two tools can automatically plan routes based on opportunity cost, driver time, and traffic. It can manage multiple prices, track all machine sales, calculate sales taxes, and optimize planograms on a machine-by-machine basis. It can automate warehouse orders based on real-time forecasted sales, and it can manage rules-based machine alerts, service tickets, parts and more.
“Based on the operator reaction we have seen so far, I am very excited about a new feature we will be showcasing in our exhibit in booth #2723,” said Mitchell. “Our cashless terminal for RFID and NFC payments can now calculate and display sales tax for each transaction. This “game changer” allows an operator to display the sales tax amount and collect it from their customers, just as they would in a traditional retail transaction. With that feature alone, Televend pays for itself in no time at all,” he added.
