Vending
European vending, coffee service recover slowly from COVID
October 4, 2023
Vending and coffee service providers have posted gains since 2021 following COVID, but did not yet achieved 2019 levels by 2022, according to the recently released annual report of the European Vending & Coffee Service Association.
The report, which provides a detailed analysis of 24 vending and office coffee service markets, offers statistics on the development of the markets and can provide companies with information to tailor investment decisions, according to a press release on the findings.
The pandemic recovery that commenced in 2021 continued in 2022, with vends and revenue all showing positive growth but not yet matching 2019 levels. The post-COVID growth rates showed that an increase in consumption coupled with significant price rises helped mitigate the effects in inflation and hybrid working.
Compared to 2019 levels, while machine numbers were slightly higher, vends and revenue were both significantly lower. Vends were more than 20% down, which could demonstrate a more permanent reduction due to a seemingly settled partial working from home rhythm.
"What really strikes me in the new report is that for the first time OCS (office coffee service) now makes up more than a third of the total industry in terms of machines," Erwin Wetzel, association director general, said in the press release. "Looking more widely, the report statistics show a bit of a mixed bag. All the key indicators look good if we compare to the previous year, but it's clear that the industry is still quite far from 2019 levels.
"The question we need to explore going forward is how operators can compensate for the seemingly permanent loss of vends from hybrid working."
This year, the report also provides for the first time some insights into smart fridge and water dispensers.
Highlights include:
- The total number of machines across Europe continued to climb, reaching 4.45 million.
- The Italian market again counted the largest field base with 826,000 machines.
- The Netherlands became the largest market in terms of vends, with 4.85 billion, 15% increase from 2021.
- The German market revenue was €2.8 billion ($2.94 billion), an increase of 16% from 2021 and the largest market by revenue.
- Micro markets numbered almost 6,500 across Europe and were showing strong year-on-year growth.
- More operators used smart fridges than micro markets.
