Leasing a machine / location from coke, pepsi, or made rite

[slinuxuzer]

Hi, I am exploring different options for getting into the vending business and I know that when my dad used to work for a vending company in my area, the business he worked for "leased" machines / locations from coca cola. These were drink machines that basically were too far out to be profitably run by coca cola, so they would allow independents to run them as long as the bought the drinks directly from them, so basically you got a turn key location in exchange for splitting some of the profits with coca cola.

I have tried to get some info on this locally without much luck and wanted to know if anyone here had experience with this or could give me some pointers of who or what department to talk to internally at these companies.

Thanks in advance.

[mission vending]

The phrase you are looking for is "third party leasing programs".

Each area seems to work their program a little differently, but in most cases you need to secure the location yourself and they will deliver and setup the machine for you. Of course as you mentioned you have to buy the product from them, nowadays they usually have a minimum monthly or annual purchase requirement to meet your quota.

In my area its 20 cases a month per machine. It can be an easier way to grow the business by requiring less capital investment on your part. I have used the programs for years having as many as 50 machines machines at one point. I am down to around 10 right now. I have had many problems dealing with the bottlers over the years and made the decision a couple of years ago to phase them out as the opportunity arises.

[slinuxuzer]

yea, that sounds about right, can you tell me if it's common to be able to take over a machine already on location?

[mission vending]

The bottlers as a trend seem to be less and less interested in doing the third party leasing for "new" vendors due to high likelihood that they will not remain in business. For me locally, my rep won't even talk to a vendor until they can show they have been in business for 2 years.

There is one member here on the board that has built quite an operation with third party stuff and he regularly gets locations from the bottler. I've gotten a few myself, but again that comes from having a longer term relationship.

[coinvestor]

There is one member here on the board that has built quite an operation with third party stuff and he regularly gets locations from the bottler. I've gotten a few myself, but again that comes from having a longer term relationship.

Where the heck is Mixer?

[mission vending]

Last I heard he was busier than a one armed wall paper hanger.

He is truly one of the success stories from VD.

I do see him lurking on occasion

[coinvestor]

Last I heard he was busier than a one armed wall paper hanger.

;D

[slinuxuzer]

so if I was a new vendor and wanted to pursue this, what would be the best way to go about it?

[NinnJinn]

Call their 1-800 number. say Hi, I'm joe with joe vending, I am inquiring about 3rd party vending.

With my expierence,

Coca Cola will have a rep call you within 30mins

Pepsi took a while then after about 20 days or so, they wouldn't even talk about vending machines until I had bought close to $7,500 worth of product from them.  But, yet people 60miles away from me in a different state can get all the pepsi machines they want.

Here it is 4 months and 24 phone calls later, and I can't even get a R/C rep to call me back to set up an account so I can order from them.