Coinadrink Limited – the Vending Machine Company. A summary of 2018.

And just like that, 2018 is almost over. In similar fashion to 2017, 16 and all those before, another year has whizzed by in the blink of an eye. This year has seen new vending machine additions, charitable updates and special days and between each and everyone, 2018 has been a fantastic year for both the company and the vending industry. One that we can all be proud of.

January 2018 – A vending machine with a heart for the homeless.

I first posted this because it showed the progression of the vending industry. Not just for technology, not even for products, but for our community. Installed in Nottingham, this unique vending machine stocked key items such as water, fresh fruit and toothpaste, and allowed simple access for those on the streets. It showed that vending machines can be more than a source of refreshment. They’re also a source for survival.

The Coinadrink party night was a huge success…

January 2018 – PARTY NIGHT!

I’ve often been told that Coinadrink’s party nights are always great occasions, but I’d never had the taste of one myself until January 27^th2018. The National Motor Cycle Museum was home to a great night celebrating our 55^thbirthday, action packed with great food, live entertainment and terrific company. We also managed to raise £5500, split between both Acorns Children’s Hospice and Just Small Change, from a dedicated prize draw and auction.

February 2018 – The ICON arrives…

Coinadrink has always been committed to delivering the very best the industry has to offer, such is the emphasis we place on innovation. We saw a great opportunity with the ICON to offer a dynamic hot drinks machine that served an extensive and authentic coffee style drinks menu to larger workplaces. Since its introduction, we have recorded high demand for the ICON and it’s proved to be an excellent hot drinks machine.

March 2018 – Customer care results for 2017 were in…

Towards the end of every year we always send out our customer care surveys in order to gain an idea as to what our customers think about the service we provide. We generally do better each year and we were delighted to say that 2017 continued the trend. 98% of customers said they were happy with our service plan and 99% said they would recommend us if asked by a colleague: excellent news! We look forward to seeing the results from 2018…

Our very own Micro Market in our showroom.

April 2018 – Time to enjoy our very own Micro Market!

Our Micro Market was introduced in 2013 and it has been refreshing workforces up and down the region ever since. We regard the Micro Market as the revolution in workplace refreshments thanks to an extensive product line and advanced technology. It all helps towards improving both the wellbeing and productivity of your employees. April 2018 saw us introduce our own in the showroom, for staff to use whenever we like!

July 2018 – Coinadrink helps to support Dementia UK.

Whilst we have our name tied to a number of charities, we are always more than happy to support additional organisations if the opportunity arises. That’s exactly what we did at the start of July, when we supported Emma Dodd in her quest to raise money for Dementia UK through a coffee morning at the Essington Community Centre. Emma then ran the Great North Run in September.

July 2018 – The exciting launch of our new website.

The website you’re currently on was dramatically refreshed in July, with an improved design, updated content and more efficient navigation tools. Drop down menus and a dedicated search button made exploring the site a breeze, whilst we made is easier to explore how vending can work for you with exclusive pages designed for each industry. We also made it easier for you to get in touch with us, and ensured every aspect of the site is easy to edit on the fly.

The Kalea joined our range earlier this year.

August 2018 – The Kalea joins our range.

The Kalea is the sister of the Karisma, an advanced tabletop that produces authentic beverages with the help of fresh coffee beans and fresh milk. Whilst the two are very similar in the ways that matter, the Kalea caters to smaller workplaces with a lower cup capacity, whilst the taller dispense area means it can accommodate larger cups. Just like the Karisma, though, it’s stunning, and the drinks produced rival the coffee shop.

September 2018 – The Midlands Business Network Expo.

We love exhibitions and the Midlands Business Network Expo was another opportunity to display our premium range of services to visitors. Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire hosted the occasion, a very prestigious host indeed. We took the Flavia 500 down the M6 with us, as it best emphasises the simplicity of vending in the workplace. It was a great day filled with lots of interest in our services, and we already can’t wait for the next one.

September 2018 – We were selected as a finalist in the Black Country Chamber Awards!

As we said back in September, it’s not every day you’re selected as a finalist in the Black Country Chamber awards is it? We entered the ‘Customer Commitment’ category in June, which we believed would be perfect to show just how much we do for the customer, from our industry leading response time to our bespoke management systems. We were thrilled to hear that the Chamber agreed. The Wolverhampton Racecourse hosted a great evening in November and whilst we didn’t win, we were delighted to get the initial recognition.

September 2018 – Macmillan Coffee Morning.

The Macmillan Coffee Morning rolled round again and employees at Coinadrink once again excelled themselves. A delicious spread of cakes and bakes were on display, making for a fantastic morning. In the process, we managed to raise an excellent £80 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Well done all!

We’ve been highly commended for our two award entries from The Vendies!

October 2018 – Highly commended by The Vendies!

As if being a finalist in the Black Country Chamber Awards wasn’t enough, we were also highly commended by The Vendies for our two competition entries: ‘Best Regional Operator’ and Best Regional Website’. The former meant we successfully identified the emphasis we place on customer service, whilst the latter showed how we benefit the customer through our new website. It was a fantastic effort from the whole team.

October 2018 – A warm welcome to the future of vending…

October saw another new arrival: the Merchant Media snack machine. The Merchant introduced a range of features that identify the future of vending, such as a QR code that holds key information to make the whole service process much more efficient than ever before. A shopping cart function means you can pay for numerous items at once whilst Apple and Google Pay make payment a doddle.

November 2018 – Express Refreshments does Black Friday!

The shopping phenomenon, famous all over the world, came to Express Refreshments in November. We teamed up with our Micro Market customers to donate 10p per sale to their chosen charities, ranging from Focus to the James Hopkins Trust. The promotion, running from the 23^rdto the 30^thNovember, proved very successful and collectively we managed to raise over £240!

December 2018 – An update from Just Small Change.

Just Small Change is another chosen charity that we have been supporting for a while, alongside Acorns Children’s Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support. This month we received an update from Peter and Jane Donaghue, the couple who founded the organisation, to say our help was boosting the lives of many people across Africa. They also informed us of a new scheme called Table Banking, where members pay in and provide loans to each other.

It’s certainly been a very busy and successful 2018 and we’re hopeful of an equally successful 2019. From everyone at Coinadrink, a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all!

The post Coinadrink Limited – the Vending Machine Company. A summary of 2018. appeared first on Coinadrink.

source https://coin-a-drink.co.uk/vending-machine-company-summary-of-2018

Vending News: Walkers launch the first Nationwide recycling scheme for crisp packets!

Despite the big push from the government, there is still not enough being done for effective recycling. Walkers (a popular product brand found in vending machines) is looking to change this, with the first ever Nationwide recycling scheme for crisp packets. It launched on Monday 10^th December and will be advertised on Walkers crisp packets from January 2019.

A background.

Working with recyclers, Terra Cycle, the scheme will tap into an established network of hundreds of recycling points around the UK. Better still, it’s free and simple to use, and all brands of crisp packets will be accepted in order to be turned into other, basic plastic items.

How it works.

• Your empty crisp packets can be dropped off at any recycling point around the UK. There are hundreds in total and your nearest one can be found here.
• If there isn’t a drop-off point local to you, simply download a label from the Terra Cycle website and arrange to have your packets collected from home by a courier free of charge.
• The packets will then be sent to Terra Cycle who will clean and shred them, before turning them into small plastic pellents. These will be used to make everyday items including furniture, trays and even flooring!

Support the scheme!

Everybody is surely aware that former footballer and current pundit Gary Lineker is the brand ambassador for Walkers, and has voiced his support for the scheme and explained how it works in an online video. This is available to view now at…As mentioned, the scheme will also be advertised on their crisp packets from January 2019.

As an incentive to take part, the scheme offers charity points based on the number of bags collected. Rather than send off one packet at a time, Walkers encourage you to collect many packets and then send them all off in one go. 

Conclusion.

 PepsiCo is aiming to ensure all of it’s packaging is 100% recyclable, compostable and biodegradable by 2025 and this is an important step. This is the first crisp packet recycling scheme in the UK and the brand are hopeful of it being a big success.

But everyone needs to play their part…

The post Vending News: Walkers launch the first Nationwide recycling scheme for crisp packets! appeared first on Coinadrink.

source https://coin-a-drink.co.uk/vending-news-walkers-recycling-crisp-packets

How much did our Black Friday efforts manage to raise?

You may have remembered that our branch division, Express Refreshments, got on board with Black Friday last month. In a unique, charitable twist, we committed to ‘teaming up’ with our Micro Market customers to donate 10p per sale to their chosen charities. It was a very successful promotion, and we’re now delighted to announce exactly how much we managed to raise…

Drum roll please. Together with our customers, we managed to raise a terrific £262.40 for all of the chosen charities, so a very well done to everyone involved! The charities in question included Douglas Macmillan, Focus, James Hopkins Trust, NASS (National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society). More information on the organisations can be found on the original blog post, and we’re thrilled to help raise valuable funds for some excellent causes.

Once again, a very well done from everyone at Coinadrink and Express Refreshments!

The post How much did our Black Friday efforts manage to raise? appeared first on Coinadrink.

source https://coin-a-drink.co.uk/black-friday-funds-raised

Christmas Jumper Day 2018 – What’s it all about?

Christmas Jumper Day 2018 is set for Friday 14^thDecember. Thousands of people up and down the country will don their Christmas jumpers for a fantastic cause – to create a better, brighter future for vulnerable children around the world. We signed up for the annual event a few weeks back and are delighted to have now received our welcome pack from Save The Children.

Make the world better with a sweater!

Save The Children UK works to support children living in some of the poorest places across the globe. Just £2 could pay for the antibiotics needed to treat 5 children suffering from pneumonia, so it’s incredible to think what can be achieved from the country as a whole. And just by wearing a sweater, we can help children to not only survive, but to thrive!

Sammy, aged 9 from Rwanda, has benefitted from the organisations ‘Let’s Read’ club, which helps to ensure that all children leave school with the ability to read. Save the Children supports Rwandan publishers, writers and illustrators to create engaging, educational titles in Kinyarwanda– Sammy’s first language.

“The teachers say it’s a shame to see a grown-up who is given a book and can’t read. To get a job, you need to read and write,” Sammy explains.

“I learned to read by going to the reading club,” he goes on to say. “Now I help some friends in school. When they don’t understand, I help them if I can.”

Alongside ‘Let’s Read’, Save the Children has been training teachers to set up book banks and use reading materials effectively as part of their lessons. In 2017, the charities educational programmes extended to 842,000 children, meaning more children experienced life-changing opportunities. The power of education has helped the 124 million children worldwide that have either never previously started school or dropped out.

Employees happy to take part will donate £2 to Save The Children. It can be any sort of Christmas jumper, from glitzy to ‘bauble-y’, so we’re looking forward to seeing what we can come up with. Last year we managed to raise £32.80, so we’re hoping to do even better this time around!

The post Christmas Jumper Day 2018 – What’s it all about? appeared first on Coinadrink.

source https://coin-a-drink.co.uk/christmas-jumper-day-2018

Log service faults easier than ever with machine QR codes!

Here at Coinadrink we pride ourselves on our standard of customer service, but we never stand still and we’re always looking to improve. QR codes are now being added to the Merchant Media snack machines as they are delivered to us, which will create a new, simple way to report service calls into us. This is also something that we’re also looking to add to the rest of our range in the near future and we’re already in the process of rolling them out.

What is a QR code?

The QR code is a two dimensional version of the standard barcode. It stands for ‘quick response’ which refers to the instant access to the information hidden within the code. It has become especially popular with widespread adoption of smartphones.

QR codes for service calls.

Our QR code is already on the new Merchant Media…

We said a few weeks ago that we will be introducing QR codes on our range of Merchant machines and we are thrilled to announce that we will be adding it to the rest of our machines shortly. It will enable you to scan the code using your smartphone, using either the camera app or a dedicated third party app.

The moment you scan the code it will prompt a webpage link to appear with the machine number and location already inputted thanks to the information stored in the QR code. All you then need to do is fill in the remaining details, such as your name and the type of fault, and then send the call into our online database here at Coinadrink.

We believe that such a revolutionary way of reporting in faults will further streamline both your vending experience and our service to you. It means you don’t have to pick up the phone or send an email to us and information within the QR code sends most of the information across without you having to input anything.

The post Log service faults easier than ever with machine QR codes! appeared first on Coinadrink.

source https://coin-a-drink.co.uk/qr-codes-service-calls