Automatic Merchandiser - 34

Employee Tyler McCoy loads a truck in
Flagstaff.

"In the last seven years, the vending business has really grown for us,"
Palmer added. "We've focused on
expanding our offerings to micro markets, nano markets and coffee. It's been
an exciting part of our business."
As senior director of Hi-Line
Refreshment Services, Gene Simon
oversees the company's vending
expansion.
"Our latest forays have been going
to our largest accounts and converting them over to micro markets,"
Simon noted. "We found that to be
really beneficial for both our sales and
our customers. The customers really
appreciate having the expanded offerings that a micro market brings and
the ease and convenience of an open
shopping experience."
SERVICING A UNIQUE TERRITORY

Justin Angel, an operations manager for
Hi-Line, works on a machine.

Employee John Jones works in the
warehouse.

Automatic Merchandiser * June/July 2020

Palmer Nackard said that the company's territory presents interesting
challenges and opportunities.
"We still have three sides to the
business," he explained. "We have the
Pepsi bottling franchise; Hi-Line Snack
and Vending, which we now operate as
Hi-Line Refreshment Services because
we do more than snacks and vending
these days; and Legacy Beverage, which
we are partners in, and that's the beer
distribution business. We are a Canteen
franchise on the Hi-Line side, and we
don't go outside of our Pepsi territory
with our vending business."
Nackard explained that their territory includes 40,000 square miles, and
the population density is about seven
people per square mile. This area of
northern Arizona may not have a large
population, but it includes some of the
biggest tourist destinations in the world.
"We cover the Grand Canyon,
Sedona and Lake Powell, so although
we only have about half a million
full-time residents in our market, we
get well over six million visitors into
our market throughout the year," he
explained, noting that the area doesn't

fit squarely into a clear marketing
demographic. "A lot of the times we
get lumped into the Southwest when it
comes to what products people might
want to buy.
"But because we have such a huge
influx in tourism, we might sell things
that do well in Asia or Europe," he
continued. "If you were a vending
operator in Phoenix, you might not
consider the same products that we
would because it's a different demographic in that market."
Nackard said that because of
this tourist-heavy demographic, the
company isn't afraid to try new things.
They've had success selling batteries,
headphones, pens and other items travelers might need when they're on vacation. Nackard said these items do well in
vending machines in the Grand Canyon
or in hotels across their territory.
TECHNOLOGY AND TRAINING
SOLUTIONS

After acquiring another vending operation, Aspen Vending, the company
made the decision to enter into a
franchise agreement for Hi-Line with
Canteen in 2012.
"We'd talked with Canteen a couple
of times, and with the acquisition of
Aspen it made a lot of sense for us,"
Simon explained. "We felt that with
their expertise, it would make our
company a lot stronger."
Simon said Hi-Line is exclusive
with 365 Retail Markets. Most of their
micro markets operate on the legacy
kiosks, while a few are on ADM.
"We're planning to upgrade all of
them - that's another project we'll be
doing during the [coronavirus] slowdown, is to get all the markets moved
over to the ADM platform," Simon
added. "We're also putting Beacon markets into some of our smaller locations."
The company also utilizes Crane
Streamware and has a small interface
with USA Technologies/Cantaloupe
Systems for cashless hardware.

Automatic Merchandiser

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