Sweetlove Vending was created in January 2012, to look after vending machines through a franchise spread throughout South West. It was started by me, Dan Sweetlove which is where the name comes from.It became increasingly clear a year after operating that as a franchise it would not survive so it became independent and I arranged to have a range of quality sweets packed for it on a contract basis. The sweets I offer in my vendors are popular and allowed me to expand my vending operation moving into other machines and products like Pringles, Cakes and Biscuits.
I found being in a franchise limited the products I could buy, I had to receive lots of usually short dated stock at high prices with ridiculous delivery costs for such large amounts which limited what I could sell in my vendors.
Becoming independent has meant that I do well in what the franchise operators do badly which in turn gives a better service to my vendor hosts and their customers however, and this is very important, I neither wish nor intend to compete with any other supplier instead, just to do what we do as best we can.
I ensure that the vendors I operate are filled with a different and exciting range of branded and non-branded confectionery and supply all the major branded confectionery but have found that my range of different brands and sweets are popular as many of the brands offered by other operators are becoming tired and are usually a lot cheaper from any supermarket or convenience store.
I find that due to cost restraints and manufacturing changes many brands have changed becoming less attractive for vending some, have even been discontinued or had their content changed.
I try to promote a fine range of traditional, classic and unusual sweets and treats making my machines a hit with children and adults, many become conversation pieces such as Blue Balls, tongue colouring blue raspberry bon bons. I also offer the widest range of imported American brands available for vending.
One of the issues I had when operating vendors through a franchise was that the pots they supply are not very full and this is hidden by a snazzy label on the side of their pots! Wherever possible Sweetlove pots are as full as possible, I will never allow a collar label around the side of the pots to hide the fact that the pot is only half full of sweets especially branded ones.
With Sweetlove Vending what you see is what you get! There are no labels on the side of pots from Sweetlove so you and your customers can see clearly what they are buying, there are no surprises and the recipient makes the choice to buy that product.
I set up this part of Sweetlove in 2013 to facilitate the packing of the sweets I would require having gone independent of the main franchise suppliers, it finds, sources, arranges packing and trials all the products used for vending, it also arranges the import of foreign sweets and candy that is so popular. Every product that ends up in any of my vending machines has been tested for suitability and trialled in certain machines in different locations, if it does well then it is put in all machines and then made available in the shop to other operators.
When packing capacity increased as new facilities became available to us in 2014, surplus production was put in an internet shop, created to offer this surplus to other operators of vending machines without the restraints like minimum orders and high prices for products that are available anywhere.
The shop has become popular to other operators looking for products to purchase different to those offered by the two other main suppliers and unlike them there is no large minimum order and delivery is included in the price, there is also no VAT on purchases.
In 2016 the Sweetlove Confectionery website was merged with Sweetlove Vending to make it easier to administrate, improve the service provided and be able to increase the range of products available as we move into different areas of vending and supply a wider range of confectionery for retail sale as well.
Many customers find us through Ebay purchasing refill packs and empty pots then navigate to the shop later finding that they save by purchasing from our shop
Since the start of Sweetlove Vending I have always recorded refills of every machine using the data not only to record sales but performace of individual vendors and products and also what to pack for stock lines. This was a manual process but as the round and number of vendors increased became online by acquiring our own live feed program linked to a GPS navigation system so the refill team could follow easy directions for each route and easily record refill data. Each refill is recorded on a tablet as it is carried out and uploads to the database, we then use this data to record sales volumes, predict trends and produce packing requirements and schedules which is then further broken down for ordering products, pots etc. I am keen to use as much automation as possible as you would have experienced if you have ordered from the shop before, receiving emails upon receipt of order and dispatch of consignment.
Recording sales in vendors out on the rounds and through ourshops helps with the ordering process we have with the brokers where we purchase our products
through another automated process.
This easily leads us on to the next topic:
I have found in the six years of operating vendors that sales are very much dictated by the weather and temperature, it has become very clear that in good weather sales of jelly products do well, when its cold sales of chocolate products increase. The last couple of Winters have been mild with chocolate sales remaining poor and jelly and chewy products remaining bouyant even increasing.
The same can be said for type of product, when I first started Blue Raspberry Bon Bons and Fizzy Strawberry Pencils had just been introduced and were the craze and it became clear that sour and blue products do well with children. Kids love anything blue and sour and manufacturers have realised this as we have been running a Blue Raspberry Fizzy Bottle this year and it has been really popular.
We have many vendor hosts who ask us to avoid certain sweets that have an adverse effect on attention and behaviour in children which we take very seriously. We are also asked to provide sweets that satisfu certain dietary requirements such as Halal so many of our products are suitable for Halal diet, Vegetarian diet and Vegan diet and we are fast moving into other areas such as Gluten Free.
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