October-November 2021 - 30

develop, acquire or divest, " he said.
" Not all business is good business, and
operators need to be wary of entering
into contracts where economics are
imbalanced. Vending management
companies and employers recognize
the tremendous value we bring to
them. They want quality, consistent
service that they know Legend Food
Service can deliver. "
REOPENING PAINS
While mass location closures were
the agonizing business reality of 2020,
keeping up with the reopenings and
new business in 2021 is proving to
have its own pains.
" But this is a good problem! "
Loughran said. " We've had to keep
an eye on cash flow to make sure we
don't overextend ourselves, but again
to our thesis, we believe in investing
in our locations so that we can deploy
equipment and service accounts more
effectively than our competitors. "
As locations reopen, operations
vice president Koehr has been
observing some positive behavior
patterns, which bode well for the
industry's future.
" It's very exciting to see business
returning and being there to provide
a much-needed service in a world
where most employees are now staying
in offices during breaktimes, " he said.
" Building high-quality micro market
solutions is a focus to help our customers
grow their teams and productivity.
We continue to analyze, experiment
and implement lessons learned. "
Operators in the United States
did their best to adjust to and survive
the severe economic ailments of
the pandemic. While 2020 will be
remembered as the most difficult year
in the history of the modern vending
industry, it will also be the year in
which the micro market, a self-service
store that operates in a workplace,
solidified its role as the core offering in
convenience services.
Legend Food Service's snack lines are
powered by Lightspeed Automation's
pick-to-light system to save time and
improve " picking " accuracy.
"
It's very exciting to see
business returning and being
there to provide a muchneeded
service in a world
where most employees are
now staying in offices during
breaktimes. "
Kevin Koehr
The company's chief revenue
Forklift operator Josh Abendroth
transports materials at Legend's
Linthicum Heights' warehouse.
While Legend's micro market
revenue dropped in 2020, sales at
markets in 2021 so far, excluding
contributions from recent acquisitions,
are 30% higher over receipts in
2019. " This increase is the result of
organic wins and same-location sales
improvement through pricing and
merchandising, among other factors, "
Loughran reported.
30 Automatic Merchandiser * October/November 2021
officer termed 2021 as " the year of the
micro market " at Legend. " Our existing
markets are preforming extremely
well as more and more people return
to work, and every new market
installation of 2021 is outperforming
projections, " Adams told Automatic
Merchandiser. " The industry's
transition to micro markets may have
started years ago, but the pandemic
has accelerated the trend, especially as
more employers look to eliminate the
high cost of a cafeteria. "
THE COMING OCS REVIVAL
Whereas the vending and micro
market segments suffered an estimated
45% sales loss in 2020, according to
October-November 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October-November 2021
