Lockdown has been a strange time for us here at Coinadrink, as it has with everyone. But they say troubled times bring everyone together, and we wanted to share the “ray of light” that we’ve witnessed internally, throughout the industry and across our country.

Showing our appreciation to our wonderful NHS!

We feel a worthy starting point is our wonderful National Health Service. In many ways, the NHS has always felt like a hidden gem. We all know how important it is to our country, but it’s only during periods of real hardship that we grow to love and appreciate it more than we ever thought possible. Whilst it’s tough for any token gesture to do their efforts justice, we were always keen to show our appreciation where possible. 

And we did it the Coinadrink way! We donated four Flavia 400 coffee machines along with enough supplies to make 800 cups of coffee, 560 cups of tea and 290 hot chocolates to the team at our local Walsall Manor Hospital. We also partnered with Britvic PLC to provide a crate of cold drinks including Pepsi Max, Fanta and Spring Water. 

We knew NHS staff worked tirelessly around the clock, so we wanted to provide refreshments for them to make the most of their break. We also did something similar to the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton when we donated a variety of refreshment supplies. Duncan Bedford, Executive Managing Director at the hospital, said “Our staff and patients are extremely grateful for your kind gestures. Thank you again for thinking of our staff in these difficult times.”

Pulling together to come through tough times.

For our business, like most, we can’t say the past few months have been easy. But the one thing we were determined to do from the start was to try and make the best of a bad situation. We have been operating 58 years so needless to say this isn’t the first time we have encountered troubled times, but it is thanks to our hard working and committed team members that we have been able to come out the other side. Refreshment Shop, our online store introduced to suit a shift in consumer demand in 2007, has done particularly well. We want to thank those staff members who have coped with exceptionally high demand during difficult circumstances.

And we weren’t about to let the pandemic take its toll on one of the main things that makes us who we are: customer service. Once again it is down to our team members, both field and office based, that we can proudly say we didn’t once let our lead times on equipment nor service response times fall below our high standards. We know there are a lot of vending companies that were powerless to stop this happening, so we are delighted with what is a great achievement for our customer-orientated business. Well done to everyone involved!

We fully appreciate that it is not just ourselves that have been impacted by this dreadful virus, and as their vending supplier we felt it was our duty to show our support to customers where we could. All customers had the option to receive free social distancing packs for each of their machines and we also offered to relocate their equipment free of charge to further assist with social distancing. Lots of customers took us up on this and we were only too happy to help keep them and their visitors safe on their premises. 

Emphasising our industry leading hygiene procedures.

In truth, Coinadrink’s customers are always in “safe hands” when using our equipment and the pandemic provided a good opportunity for us to emphasise our pro-active stance towards hygiene. Whilst many other vending companies have merely “reacted” to the virus, we were confident in our bespoke procedures that are as old as we are! These include our unique sanitisation process on our hot drinks’ machines and our advanced auditing procedure that maintains our high standards.

An innovative plan for the future.

Moving forward, we feel as though we are in a good position for the future. An important aspect that has always allowed us to stay ahead of the competition is our keen eye for innovation. We quickly figured that such a flexible and fast paced industry such as ours was perfectly set up to “adapt” to the changing trends consumers are now demanding, particularly with hygiene. Backed up by the Automatic Vending Association, vending machines remain a safe entity for the provision of food and drink, but vending is well positioned for those who require added peace of mind. 

The last few months have seen us acquire new equipment and services from our suppliers that can offer just that. Distance Selection works with specific hot drinks and coffee machines to enable the user to select their beverage simply by “hovering” their finger over the desired icon. Elsewhere, we now provide equally “contactless” water dispensers and models from AA First go one step further by “self-sanitising” your water dispenser at regular intervals. Our equipment already leads the way with hygiene, but we’re delighted to now offer truly “contactless” options to our range.  

And not forgetting our new line of PPE vending machines, which have really caught the eye! Even as government guidelines become more lenient, the reality is we may have to use PPE for the foreseeable future, especially if you’re working in certain industries. 

Collaborating with one of our trusted suppliers, Evoca Group, Coinadrink now provides vending machines that can be adapted to store and dispense a variety of PPE from face masks to hand sanitiser. Since this announcement, we have seen extremely high interest, including that from Birmingham TV, who recently interviewed our Sales and Marketing Manager Tom Williams about it.