Photo : D.R.
N&W Global Vending is the leading automatic vending company in Europe. After joining the firm in June 2003 as director of the group’s financial arm, Hervé Donneaud became Sales Director of the French subsidiary in June 2005, before being appointed General Director in May 2006.
Commerce International: The history of N&W Global Vending is a history of mergers and acquisitions. How is the company currently performing?
Hervé Donneaud: “N&W Global Vending is a leading international company in the automatic coffee vending sector. Our head office is located in Valbrembo in Lombardy, Italy. Present in over 80 countries around the world, N&W Global Vending employs over 1,800 people and, in 2008, generated a turnover of around 400 million euros. We do the majority of our business in Europe, a region in which we generate most of our turnover and in which we are the undisputed leader with a substantial market share. France is the company’s second most important market behind Italy. Our French head office is in Mesnil-Amelot near Roissy in the Seine-et-Marne département east of Paris. Due to the fact that we have been expanding steadily for many years, we have gradually built up a team of 50 employees and are now the biggest company in the sector in France. We have also created a network of five technical-commercial agencies located in different parts of the country, which enables us to provide our clients with a service second to none. And it’s our clients who say so!”
What services does N&W Global Vending provide and what are the company’s product lines?
H.D.: “We are the leading manufacturer of automatic drinks and snacks vending machines and of professional coffee vending machines. We cover three segments of the market: automatic vending properly so-called; hotels, restaurants and cafés; and the Office Coffee Services segment. All the machines we design use highly advanced technology combining sophisticated embedded electronics systems with excellent mechanics, providing top class product delivery and long-term reliability, a key factor of success. In terms of automatic vending machines, our offer covers the entire range of products that clients have a right to expect from an automated machine: traditional or “gourmet” hot and cold drinks; and snacks including sandwiches, fruit, yoghurts, take-away meals and, of course, confectionary. In terms of hotels, restaurants and cafés, we cover the food services market in its entirety and are active in all those places where food is served: not only bars, restaurants and hotels, but also bakery and tea room chains, take-away outlets and service stations, and public facilities such as hospitals, universities and company restaurants. The last segment – OCS, or Office Coffee Services – focuses on offices and relatively enclosed spaces with a small number of consumers, perhaps a dozen or so, in which tabletop machines dispensing coffee pods (single serving packs) are used.”
Automatic vending machines have often been accused of contributing to obesity and the production of unnecessary waste – plastic cups, for example. What is your position on these issues?
H.D.: “We have to prepare ourselves. We cannot and will not ignore the issues that you have very properly raised. Everyone is aware of the increasing importance
accorded by policy makers to obesity and waste management and the constraints that that implies on all economic actors. Like everyone else, the automatic vending machine sector has to adapt its industrial processes and habitual professional practices, without, at the same time, imagining that people are ‘pointing the finger’ at us. Naturally, the manufacturers have a role to play. At N&W Global Vending we can provide machines which are sufficiently intelligent not to deliver a cup to consumers who prefer to use their own mugs. The machines are equipped with a photocell that automatically detects the presence of a mug before releasing a cup. In terms of snack and confectionary vending machines, we offer restrictive and selective solutions enabling machines to memorise individual user profiles and frame their choices within a predefined spectrum thanks to the MiZip key payment system. Moreover, in terms of our ecological footprint, our machines are now designed to be recyclable and to consume less energy; the manufacturing processes used to produce them generate less waste and consume less industrial energy than before. Such progress is the result of a strategic financial choice: 5% of our turnover is reinvested in R&D. We are therefore confident about the future.”
Will the international economic crisis make 2010 as difficult as 2009?
H.D.: “2009 was a difficult year for automatic vending manufacturers. Everyone took a big hit. Our clients reduced their orders by something like 25% even though their turnover dropped by an average of only 5-10%. In France, N&W Global Vending did much better than most manufacturers and was able to consolidate its position as market leader thanks to its capacity to adapt and innovate. It should be pointed out that if so many clients have chosen us for so many years, it’s because we have, over the course of time, become their first port of call in the field of automatic vending machines. So we have good reason to be optimistic as the year begins, especially since the new range of machines we officially launched in 2008 has proved its worth. It should also be remembered that over 50% of our sales in 2008 were generated by products developed over the three previous years, and that, in view of our R&D investments, this trend is set to continue, thus benefitting our clients. 2010 should therefore help us put the difficulties of 2009 in perspective as we reap the benefits of an economic climate which, according to more and more expert observers, is already beginning to improve.”
Important dates
1924: Wittenborg founded in Odense (Denmark).
1968: Zanussi Vending founded in Valbrembo (Italy).
1976: SGL Italia founded in Turin (Italy).
1986: ADE Elettronica founded in Villotta di Chions (Italy).
2000: Merger between Wittenborg and Necta Vending Solutions (formerly Zanussi Vending) to form N&W Global Vending.
2007: N&W Global Vending acquires SGL Italia.
2008: N&W Global Vending acquires ADE Elettronica, which becomes
N&W Innovative Solutions; Barclays Private Equity and Investcorp Investment Holdings acquire N&W Global Vending.
Further information on www.nwglobalvending.com et www.nwglobalvending.fr
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