Jump to content

Healthy you vending machines valuations


Recommended Posts

Greetings all.

I have the opportunity to buy someones Healthy You vending machines model HY850/800. They all have the added side cart. The seller has 3 machines in good locations. The sales reports from the machines show about $6-7k gross annual sales per machine per location. He sent me sales through the machines electronic reporting. They all have credit card/ remote capabilities. He is asking for $5k per machine with the location. All 3 machines are geographically close together. Only 2 of the locations receive a 5% commission.

I'm not sure what Healthy You charged him for these machines originally but I would be buying from the operator not Healthy You.

I'm new to vending machines though I have owned and operated other route type businesses. This seems like a good buy to me but I wanted some feedback from more experienced operators if this was a good place for me to start?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regardless of the price you pay for the machines, you must remember that the value of imported machines with poor sub-standard support is very low.  Factor that in along with the anticipated net profit and see what your return on investment is.  With used machines (older than these) you generally want an ROI of 1 year or less.  With newer machines the ROI is expected to be longer but I would say never longer than 2 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First the machines are very poorly made, and are parts and support is expensive and or hard to get.

However, the locations seem to be pretty good, so try offering about 3-4 grand a location, and swap out to full size seperate snack and soda machines as soon as you can

reason being that combos don't hold enough to make servicing profitable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greetings all.

I have the opportunity to buy someones Healthy You vending machines model HY850/800. They all have the added side cart. The seller has 3 machines in good locations. The sales reports from the machines show about $6-7k gross annual sales per machine per location. He sent me sales through the machines electronic reporting. They all have credit card/ remote capabilities. He is asking for $5k per machine with the location. All 3 machines are geographically close together. Only 2 of the locations receive a 5% commission.

I'm not sure what Healthy You charged him for these machines originally but I would be buying from the operator not Healthy You.

I'm new to vending machines though I have owned and operated other route type businesses. This seems like a good buy to me but I wanted some feedback from more experienced operators if this was a good place for me to start?

While these sound like decent locations, the potential problem I see is that with only three machines you'll to hard pressed to move case lots of product quick enough to avoid stales.  If you get more machines to offset this, then they'll all have to be healthy since you'll be locked in with your product mix.  Healthy snacks only sell well if nothing else is available - mix them in with the regular snacks and they'll just sit there.  Schools are the only locations I've heard of that do that kind of Healthy volume.  I consider anything over $500 a month to be a good location and given that these are combo machines you'll need to service them at least once a week to hit those numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies, I'm considering an offer of $3500 per location. I'm not impressed with the capacity but he only has a month to month contract so while the machines have been in location for 3 years I'd wait to recoup my ROI before upgrading them.

 

He is only servicing every 14 days so the machines are definitely underselling as when I inspected them 1/2 the products were empty. 2 of the locations I would need to replace the machines as there physically isn't room for another one. The 3rd location has a wide open room so if I purchased the location he will introduce me to the site owner and I would pitch adding another machine or two. The properties are huge.

 

Funny enough moondog most the snacks in the machines were junk food with a few healthy options but I'm not so much worried about expired product as I have an athletic facility installing in 3 weeks and another one is reviewing a proposal today so I'm planning to ramp up fast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I were to buy these do we have a suggested vendor for parts? and what repairs should I expect to come up?

 

I repair ATM machines so as long as I can buy the part and look at a basic set of instructions I'm sure I can figure it out. I've had to do some rather complicated repairs in the field so as long as I don't need to rewire anything I can handle taking the machine apart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I were to buy these do we have a suggested vendor for parts? and what repairs should I expect to come up?

 

I repair ATM machines so as long as I can buy the part and look at a basic set of instructions I'm sure I can figure it out. I've had to do some rather complicated repairs in the field so as long as I don't need to rewire anything I can handle taking the machine apart.

Your main repairs will be in replacing validators and coin mechs - this a no brainer.  I'd  replace the one machine in the larger location with two full size machines, this will allow you to legitimately service that location every two weeks, what's going on now is bad business.  Keep the old machine for parts.  You'll need to service the other two combos once a week to do this properly (which is why we don't like combos)  The previous owner probably realized that the healthy snacks were not selling and added all the traditional stuff to make some money. I'm sure he's taken a severe beating on this if he bought those machines via a biz op - not your problem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cept atms are nice, commercial equipment, and these are cheap chinesium

and we all know what that means repair wise

No doubt about the quality (or lack thereof) of those Chinese machines but one spare ought to be able to keep those other two working until he can replace them with something better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No doubt about the quality (or lack thereof) of those Chinese machines but one spare ought to be able to keep those other two working until he can replace them with something better.

I was referring to the poor engineering and lack of attention to repair ease, not to mention the "tolarances" are a joke and that makes the repair process go from relatively straght forwards to hours of bruised knuckles, cussing, sore backs and arms, not to mention creative fixes and creative use of tools, as well as multiple trips to the local harbor freight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was referring to the poor engineering and lack of attention to repair ease, not to mention the "tolarances" are a joke and that makes the repair process go from relatively straght forwards to hours of bruised knuckles, cussing, sore backs and arms, not to mention creative fixes and creative use of tools, as well as multiple trips to the local harbor freight.

Just glad I don't own one - everybody here knows my tolerance is low.  I'm sure I could handle the cussing part  ;D  ;D  ;D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome feedback Moondog thanks!

 

I hadn't considered using a machine for parts but that's a good idea as I could potentially put a larger capacity machine in the 2 of the accounts with limited space. The largest account with the open room I could put both machines but it may also make sense to go with a separate snack and soda machine as you mentioned rather than the combo machines even though the account has enough room for me to relocate the combo's. For the accounts with limited space I understand why 2 separate machines is preferred but are there larger capacity combo units out there when you don't have the space?  

 

I ended up offering him $3K per location but he felt my offer was too low. I said I was willing to increase my offer if he can get a 1 year agreement on the machine placements so he's going to go back to the locations too see. They have only been listed for a couple weeks so as time drags on he may get more desperate to be rid of them. He paid $8500 for them through the Healthy You biz-op so I expect he's about even now on his investment after 3 years. 

 

The machines do have the E-port if that's of any value. It looks based on the reporting data that the machines sell 65% on credit vs. 35% on cash

 

Is there a consensus how best to move machines? Pilot wanted $450 to remove and transport a vending machine 30 miles. I wasn't sure if when it came time to move or replace a machine it made sense to just eat the $450 when it comes up or if I should invest in equipment so long term I can move the machines myself. 


What machines/brands do you like? I was considering some USI ones.

 

I learned from operating ATM's to buy the expensive equipment that doesn't break down.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

USI is mid range

AMS is good, so (was) AP, Crane National, Dixie narco, vendo, and Royal

Actuallly royal is great.

Consdier buying used though.

$450 to move a machine is absurd unless it's up three flights of stairs.  The going rate is $100 and it would cost you at least 20K to get set up to move machines properly so look for somebody more reasonable.  In regards to the biggest and best combo machine, I'd PM Reel, he's in Aussie land and they use a lot of combos down there - most of them made in the US.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there a consensus how best to move machines? Pilot wanted $450 to remove and transport a vending machine 30 miles. I wasn't sure if when it came time to move or replace a machine it made sense to just eat the $450 when it comes up or if I should invest in equipment so long term I can move the machines myself. 

  

Until you own enough machines that it makes sense for you to move them yourself you need to find someone who regularly moves vending machines.  It could be an equipment supplier, an independent repairman (you'll need one of those anyway) or possibly a competitor who you can trust after creating a relationship with them.  Look for anyone who regularly advertises used vending machines, whether you buy from them or not, as they will either do the moving themselves or know others who can.  Using the correct equipment and having experience doing it makes all the difference in the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All great feedback guys thanks! I'll shop around to see if I can find a cheaper mover.

 

When buying machines are there any specific upgrades or specs I want to make sure the machine has? It gets confusing with different brands as some have different features. If I buy new is $6K what I can expect for a good quality machine?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where the hell did the Aussie come into play here

Ron (Reel) has these combos wired, he knows all the various tray configurations and which machines work best because he probably has more combos than the rest of us combined.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One too many Coors Lights....  ;D  ;D  ;D

You would know that there's no such thing as too many Coors Lites, if you didn't drink brown pig swill  ;D  ;D  ;D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...