Vending

Refreshing USA: How a national CS operation retains the entrepreneurial spirit

Ryan Wear has developed a nationwide network of vending operations under the Refreshing USA banner that also services his retail water vending business, WaterStation Technology.

Image courtesy of 365 Retail Markets.

March 2, 2022 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

2022 marks an important milestone for the country's fastest growing convenience services company: Refreshing USA.

If you haven't heard of the company, that's because it has operated under the names of the companies it has acquired across 44 states in the last several years. But this year, the companies are transitioning to operate under the Refreshing USA brand, the only nationwide convenience services organization that does not operate as part of a larger organization that includes other services.

Ryan Wear

"The purpose (of the rebranding) is to make it more consistent and clean for marketing purposes," founder and owner Ryan Wear told Vending Times in a phone interview. His company now has more than 350 employees and expects to exceed $200 million in revenue in 2022.

Humble beginnings

Wear, 46, has been an innovator as well as an entrepreneur since he began his convenience services career part-time while in high school.

He launched his first vending business in 1994 while in high school in Everett, Washington, using the money he earned mowing lawns and delivering newspapers to buy vending machines. He continued growing this business while attending the University of Washington, and the enterprise grew into Summit Vending, a 25-route operation.

But Wear was never one to rest on his laurels. Within the first decade of his vending career, he also launched a product distribution business, a vending equipment repair business and a vending management business (serving as a middleman between accounts and vending operators to service them).

In 2011, he sold Summit Vending to Canteen Vending Services Inc., owned by Compass Group North America. But unlike many sellers of vending operations, Wear had no intention of retiring from vending. He retained his Everett operating facility which he rented to Canteen, as well as a portion of the business that he did not sell to Canteen.

In retrospect, Wear is glad he sold his vending business, as it was one of the best decisions of his life personally and professionally. There was a lot he learned from sitting on the seller side of the table to make the process better for sellers as Refreshing USA acquires local and regional vending businesses across the U.S.

He realized how important trust, transparency and speed to close matters to sellers who have often worked hard for decades to build their business from the ground up. The strong relationships they cultivated with their customers is not something to be taken lightly.

Wear realized it can be lonely and scary for independent vending operators to compete against publicly traded companies with extensive resources, so he empowers independent operators to compete and win with the backing of Refreshing USA.

New direction: Water vending

In 2013, Wear's career took a new direction when he purchased a water vending machine manufacturing company. Water vending became a focus, as he developed a bottleless water vending machine that creates virtual spring water.

The next year, he launched WaterStation Technology, which manufactures, markets and services a 5-gallon water vending machine and soon began placing and operating the machines at retail locations on the West Coast.

WaterStation Technology eventually grew into one of the nation's largest water vending machine providers.

As he grew his water vending footprint, Wear recognized a synergy between his retail water vending operation and traditional vending.

"Our primary focus for years was the water, and then we started to expand vending once we started getting a lot of (water) placements," Wear said.

A two-step strategy: Water service and vending

He followed a two-step strategy, whereby he established a retail water vending business branch, then acquired a vending company to service the water machines in addition to its existing vending customers.

Another purpose of the Refreshing USA rebranding is to have an easily identified service organization for the retail water vending machines. Refreshing USA serves as the operating arm of WaterStation.

"In most states, we do the servicing," Wear said, although there are some contractors that operate some water machines.

He also has water vending operations through partnerships in Canada, Mexico, South America and South Africa.

Growth through acquisition

The company's growth accelerated in 2015, largely through acquisition.

He has started vending businesses to service his network of water stations, but much prefers to purchase existing vending businesses because experienced people are hard to find.

In the last two years, Wear has acquired more than 58 convenience services businesses. He plans to acquire as many in 2022.

"We retained 100% of the staff (of the acquired companies)," Wear said. "We've got a great crew across the board and great retention as we try to make our program work for everyone and still make it attractive to the seller to wear the hat that they like, whether it's sales or operations. We bring in the people where they needed some help."

Wear believes that the greatest success is achieved when people are put in positions that align with their unique abilities. Independent vending operators wear many hats as they grow their business and Refreshing USA enables sellers to focus on what they enjoy doing to take their business to the next level.

Challenges continue

Wear doesn't minimize the challenges involved bringing different operating companies together under one brand. The acquired companies use different vending management software and varying route strategies.

The acquired companies are able to use their existing vending management software, providing they use telemetry enabled machines.

"Our basic rule of thumb has been that each one can act independently as long as they're 100% online and reporting so that we can use the telemetry and have real-time reporting capabilities," Wear said. "Wherever needed, we've been updating that and making it more consistent, so we use a number of software platforms right now just because it's tough to get everything uniform with the growth."

About half the acquired companies don't need to have any of their machines fully updated with telemetry capability. Among those that do, most have already made some progress in this direction.

"We come in with our labor and assist with that process," Wear said.

Unifying disparate organizations

While there are varying route strategies, Wear has been able to achieve a level of uniformity. Most operations have combined service routes as opposed to dedicated routes for coffee service, vending, pantry service or micro markets.

The route drivers use mobile phones, as well as planograms that are arranged with the support of companywide product category management.

Each branch has supervisors, general managers and administrative support under the direction of territory managers and corporate staff.

The company is currently in the process of introducing warehouse management software to all its branches.

In addition to looking for companies with experienced employees, Wear also seeks companies strategically located to the existing business.

His main challenges are those common to the rest of the industry: product availability and labor.

Aside from the water machines, micro markets are the fastest growing segment, having tripled for the company in 2021.

Wear is optimistic about convenience services. As the pandemic subsides, people are returning to work.

The satisfaction that Wear experienced when he launched his first vending business in high school continues to motivate him.

"I enjoy going to different businesses and seeing what businesses do," he said.

Photo courtesy of International Franchise Professionals Group.