Parcel Holders’ new business division, ‘Parcel Suppliers’, which was created specifically to streamline the delivery of vending machine parts from the manufacturer to the user, has signed a deal with Coffetek and according to Sales Director Ian Johnston, the Parcel Suppliers offer ‘matches what we are trying to achieve in the business.’
‘We’ve signed up because we actually see it as being quite progressive in the marketplace’, Ian said. ‘From a service point of view, it aligns us with the qualities vending operators require from a supplier, in terms of good communication and speedy delivery. The Parcel Suppliers system effectively eliminates all those ‘chasing up’ phone calls that are enough to drive anybody mad. With Parcel Suppliers, as soon as a part is logged-on to the system, we get notified and so does the customer. Everybody involved knows exactly where they stand, so from a service point of view, it just matches what we’re trying to achieve in the business.’
Coming just over a month since Parcel Suppliers signed Westomatic, the Coffetek deal underlines the company’s impact on the vending industry.
‘We’re providing a solution to a problem that’s been with us in vending since the industry began: that is, getting a spare part from the manufacturer’s premises to the site where the vending machine is installed’, Parcel Suppliers MD Ed Fraser said. ‘The amount of time that has traditionally been wasted, for instance in having field engineers return to base solely to collect a part, or on parts ‘going missing’, either in transit or on site (with all the incumbent chasing up), was costing operators money. Vending machines with ‘out of order’ notices on them frustrate potential customers and besmirch the industry in the eyes of the consumer’, Ed said, ‘so to getting machines back in business as quickly as possible after a problem is really very important indeed.’
With a number of vending and water operating companies already signed up, followed now by two of the country’s most important spare parts suppliers, it’s clear that the industry sees Parcel Holders / Parcel Suppliers as a modern solution to an age-old problem.
