Automatic Merchandiser - 25

The census also noted that while pantry
service is the smallest segment of
convenience services, it's making gains
along with micro markets and OCS,
while traditional vending is expected to
continue to decline.
Blake Jones, who is part of the
second-generation leadership at Pot
O' Gold Coffee in the Greater Seattle
area, said that Pot O' Gold launched its
pantry/snack service to a couple of its
larger, 500-plus OCS accounts several
years ago, making nightly snack deliveries. The graveyard-shift delivery didn't
work for the company, so it now offers
pantry and snack services through its
regular OCS routes. Jones reports that
they've seen increased interest from
their customers.
"It's definitely grown," Jones said.
"The reason why is that every office -
especially the tech ones around Seattle
- wants to offer their employees the
best they can, because they're competing to have those employees." Jones
said that business owners don't just
want to keep these valuable employees
in their workforce, they want to keep
them in the office throughout the day.
By offering premium coffee drinks and
access to quality food, employers can
eliminate the need for their employees
to leave the office in search of food or
beverages, increasing productivity and
time spent working each day.
"They want to keep their employees
happy, but they also want their employees to stay at the office," he continued.
"They don't want them to have to leave
the office and wait in line somewhere."
Providing breakfast food in the
office can actually encourage workers
to show up to work earlier since they
know they can get coffee and food as
soon as they arrive at the office.
"[Employers] want their employees
to get to the office early, so they let
them know they can have breakfast
there," Jones continued. "People definitely want to have breakfast options.
We're seeing a growing demand for

a lot of the breakfast items that we
carry - bagels, cereals, breakfast bars,
protein bars."
Jones says that if operators notice
their customers are currently providing their own breakfast items to their
employees, they can capture this extra
meal by offering superior inventory
control, lessening the burden on
whomever is responsible for ordering
food and supplies for the company.
"People will go with us because
of our inventory control service,"
Jones explains. "If I have an account
that gets snack items from us, we'll
show up prior to the delivery to take
inventory, ensuring that they're never
over- or understocked. We take care of
everything. There's a growing demand
of people wanting OCS to take over
everything for them, because office
managers don't want to have to deal
with snacks. We have accounts that
we've had for 10 years who now want
snack programs, so our warehouse is
filling up with snacks."
BREAKFAST IN MICRO MARKETS
AND VENDING

Since pantry/snack services is still
a relatively small segment of convenience services - and not every
employer will cover this cost for its
employees - operators should also
consider offering breakfast through
micro markets and vending.
"Our main focus for breakfast items
is in micro markets," said May. "For
some reason, breakfast items don't do
very well in vending machines. People
like to look and touch these items

Pop-Tarts is a top-seller for Kellogg's in
vending.
Kellogg's

before buying.
Grab-and-go items
like Cap' n Crunch®
and Aunt Jemima®
Pancake On The
Go are wonderful
solutions."
Vending,
however, still
Kellogg's Cerealoffers consumers
in-a-Cup can be
quick, portable and
eaten directly from
inexpensive breakfast
the container -
just add milk.
solutions. Suppliers
Kellogg's
aren't ignoring this
part of the market segment,
as snacks sell strongly in
vending.
"For traditional vending, Kellogg's heavily leans
towards the snack space,"
explained Melissa Ritthaler,
channel marketing manager
at Kellogg Company.
Ritthaler noted that PopTarts is among the brand's
"core four" products in vending, and Kellogg's cereals and
Quaker's
bars do well in vending.
Cap'N Crunch
"We do play in
dispenser offers
the breakfast space in
a quick and
micro markets with our easy breakfast
solution for
Cereal-in-a-Cup and
break rooms.
our bars," she added.
Quaker
"Bars are still big in the
breakfast space because people are so
on-the-go and looking for that quick
breakfast solution."
The Cereal-in-a-Cup product
features an adult-sized portion of
cereal that can be consumed straight
out of the no-spill container (milk is
purchased or supplied separately).
Ritthaler said that Kellogg has seen a
lot of success with its Cereal-in-a-Cup
Tree Merchandiser in micro markets,
cafeterias and break rooms as the merchandiser can fit into a small space yet
is highly visible and easily replenished.
Ritthaler said that Nutri-Grain
Breakfast Bars, made with real fruit
and offered in apple cinnamon,

October/November 2019 * VendingMarketWatch.com

25
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Automatic Merchandiser

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