Automatic Merchandiser - 32

cashless or credit card readers on any machines," Duxbury recalled. "We didn't
own any assets other than
snack machines. It really
was just a cash-based vending business. We got aggressive on the technology side
with some of our own ideas
and communication with
Ace Vending. We had a
parallel vision with them;
the idea was that cashless
was going to become more
important."
Duxbury admits that his
first couple of years in the
industry involved "just surviving" and trying to learn
as much as he could about
vending. However, from day
one, he was using tech tools
like vending management

software (VMS) Streamware
and prekitting.
"In a smaller market
like Yuma, that immediately gave us a distinct
advantage over our
competition because we
were more efficient and
our trucks were capable of
servicing more machines
a day," he said. "That was
a baseline that we started
with, making things much
more efficient in the warehouse and on the routes."
By 2012, Duxbury felt
that he had basic operations down and was ready
to think - and act - more
strategically. He said that
when he learned Avanti
Markets had introduced
micro markets to the

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32

Automatic Merchandiser * April 2020

Colin Watley is the company's
chief marketing officer.

industry, he knew that customers would want a new
experience beyond vending
machines. Any free cash
flow went into investing
into technology for the
business, including cashless
and telemetry on the vending machines, kiosks in
micro markets, and office
coffee, bottled water and
pantry services.
"We just always
doubled down on technology - we probably had
more courage than brains,
but we were intelligently
ignorant. We didn't know
what we couldn't do," Duxbury recalled, laughing. "I
think that a lot of people in
the industry were reluctant to spend the kind of
money that was required
at that point to upgrade
equipment the way that we
were, especially considering our size. But we just
saw it as the only pathway
to long-term survival and
growth, and, eventually,
outperforming our com-

George Caruso,
CTO, has led
the company's
aggressive
technology
updates in
Yuma and
Reno.

petition. We really haven't
stopped that."
MICRO MARKETS
CHANGE THE GAME

Duxbury oversaw the installation of the company's
first Avanti micro markets
in 2012. He said this was a
"game-changer" as theirs
was the only company in the
area offering micro markets.
"The revenue jump
was substantial - I would
say close to triple-digit -
converting our vending
accounts to micro markets,"
he said. "It gave us a pretty
powerful sales tool when we
were going after competitors' accounts."
At the same time the
company launched micro
markets, they also started
deploying credit card readers in vending machines as
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