Commentary

Vending machines in HORECA locations?

The vending machine clearly has much to offer the HORECA industries in the post pandemic era.

Image: Adobe Stock.

February 20, 2023 by Sam Roberts — Digital Marketing Manager, Connect Vending

You would think that there is very little relevance for vending machines in businesses such as restaurants, cafés and hotels that typically rely on providing food and drink to their clients to generate large portions of their revenue. Many such establishments handle their food and beverage operations in-house.

The reality is that it's not as clear cut as you might think at first glance. There is a role for fresh food vending, snack vending and coffee vending to deliver significant benefits to these HORECA businesses.

Consider hotels

Hotels are the most obvious example. If you've ever watched a TV series or a film, you've likely seen a snack vending machine or cold drink machine in a hotel or motel. Vending machines are the perfect solution to place in hotel lobbies or corridors for one obvious reason — they're accessible by clients 24/7, so when room service and the hotel restaurant are out of commission, guests can still get access to food and drinks.

Hotels that introduce vending also benefit from a captive audience. Generally speaking, hotel guests don't like the idea of getting out of bed at 3 a.m. and trekking to the nearest shop and hoping that it's still open.

Whether the guest is after a refreshing bottle of water or a sugary snack to get an energy boost, these machines are tactically placed and are highly effective use cases for vending machines.

You're less likely to see fresh food vending machines in hotel settings as most people staying in hotels have plans outside of the hotel for lunches and dinners, and breakfasts are typically served up by the hotel restaurant. But fresh food machines do have a place in some of the other types of HORECA locations.

Fresh food machines in restaurants

Restaurants utilizing fresh food vending machines is a trend which saw significant growth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, where diners and takeout customers were not able to enter the restaurant dining areas or interact with staff because of social distancing rules, especially during the lockdowns.

Fresh food vending machines gave these restaurants the ability to hold pre-prepared food in ovenproof or microwave-ready packaging so that they can be purchased, taken home and heated up at home.

Restaurant vending machines provided a vital source of revenue for businesses whilst they were unable to have paid guests visit for sit down meals.

Commercial "smart fridges" have grown in popularity over the last couple of years for this exact reason — their flexibility, security and accessibility are now in much higher demand by businesses that need to claw back some revenue, and by consumers who are looking for more convenient ways to access food.

Coffee machines in cafés

When you're visiting your local café for a bite to eat and a nice cup of tea or coffee, you'd expect to see a fancy barista machine and some coffee brewing wizardry as they whip together your drink. This is still the mainstay of smaller coffee shops, but as the coffee market grows ever larger and cost pressures increase, some coffee shops are starting to look for other ways of delivering hot drinks.

Commercial coffee machines are now seriously impressive pieces of equipment, and can put out high quality bean to cup espresso, alongside frothy fresh milk, and can also deliver syrup shots into cups for a flavored beverage.

Some cafés, and even some retail coffee chains, now utilize commercial coffee machines to reduce the time taken to grind and brew espresso coffee, helping them get more customers orders fulfilled and keep everyone happy that they aren't waiting around.

There are also well-known pubs which rely entirely on automatic coffee vending machines as self-serve coffee bays for their customers to grab their own hot drinks, which again helps them reduce queues at the bar and removes the need for trained baristas to be available for every shift.

We have also seen some cafés that have utilized "smart fridges" or other fresh food vending options to help remove some of the burden on staff during peak hours, where they are needed to wait tables or manage more complex hot food orders.

The vending machine clearly has much to offer the HORECA industries in the post pandemic era.