Recovery Of Cold Drink Sales In Planet Antares Vending Machines

In 2004, cold drink vending sales posted recovery. This was achieved largely due to an industry wide move to bottles as opposed to cans. A gain of 1.3 percent was posted by cold drink sales in 2004 to be followed by three consecutive years of decline.

As a percentage of sales, bottles rose in double digits in 2004, the biggest 1 year gain since they were launched in the vending market in 1990s. While most of the Planet Antares vending operators preferred working with cans and found them more profitable, most noted that the consumer preferred bottles. Customers prefer bottles because they were more fashionable and also resalable.

Moreover, a slight rise in the number of cold drink machines including Planet Antares vending machines has also contributed to the sales gain. The cold drink vending machine category was the only major product category in which machine placements grew instead of declining in 2004. The main reason for this is that most machines were provided by bottlers.

While the significant increase in bottles helped in driving the overall cold beverage sales, Planet Antares vending operators are constrained in their pricing due to competitive pressures. Small vending operators still sell more cans than bottles. The percentage of cans versus bottles bears a direct relationship to the size of the company. Larger the company, the more bottles they sold relative to cans.

It has been observed by Planet Antares vending operators that supermarkets continued their long standing practice of using cold beverages as loss leaders and heavily advertised the low pricing. In many cases, vending operators could not purchase these products for the same price they saw retailers advertising.

In spite of being highly profitable, cold cup beverage vending continued to decline in the recent years. The larger operators also dominated the rest of the cold cup business.

Planet Antares vending machines are capable of carrying both cans and bottles. It is suggested that you keep both of them in your vending machines as they have proved to be very profitable in vending operations.