Fifty Years of Vending Excellence The late Bill Gross, left, and Jack Edgerton herald the end of an era: the last APi Smokeshop cigarette vending machine rolls off the line in l992. The "Satellite Lounge" reflected the age of swing, when vending machines popped up everywhere in America. APi was an industry leader. As consumer tastes, the work place and lifestyles change, vending systems evolve to reflect them. When our company began in l949, we specialized in the manufacture of cigarette vending machines. It was the dawn of the booming ’fifties, and Glenn Miller and swing were the rage. Our Smokeshop® cigarette vendor was a sign of its time, and APi quickly established itself as a leader. The Smokeshop was APi’s major line for the first two decades of the company’s history. The Industry Leader By the ’sixties, the American economy was booming. More disposable income prompted impulse buying, synonymous with vending and convenience. APi built an innovative electro-mechanical, closed-front Candyshop®, offering ten selections that could each be purchased with one coin. It was produced until 1986. Early model Candyshop, circa 1972 APi quickly became and remained the industry leader in candy and snack dispensing, first competing against manual drop shelf machines, then retaining leadership with new technological advances and more selectivity. Our Pastryshop® and Snackshop® machines offered more selectivity and freshness with a "first in, first out" dispensing system. In the early ‘eighties, APi introduced the first fully electronic glassfront merchandisers. The visual appeal and increased selectivity inspired a dramatic impulse sales increase. APi Innovations Set The Pace In 1981, APi acquired Refreshment Machinery Industries (RMi) in Warminster, Pennsylvania. It is here where we produce the premium-quality hot beverage merchandisers that today make us the category leader. APi started to export in earnest in 1981, and in 1992 an international office was established in the United Kingdom. A distributorship was opened in the UK in 8050 Hot Beverage Merchandiser with the industry’s first bean grinder. l995, and today global sales represent a fast-growing segment of APi’s business, with over 20 distributors outside the U.S. in more than 40 countries worldwide. In 1984, APi became the first U.S. company to offer a coffee vending machine system that actually ground and brewed whole beans for every cup. The 8050 Hot Beverage Merchandiser offered not only an improved coffee aroma and flavor, but also the display of fresh beans and the sound of beans being ground. Another ’80’s innovation: Branding. To capitalize on consumers’ increasing desire for nationally-branded products in vending, APi formed strategic partnerships with some of the biggest candy and snack names in the industry. Display merchandising soon appeared on vending machines for brands like Nestlés®(on a global basis), M&M®/Mars®, Frito-Lay®, Kraft®/General Foods® and Hershey’s®. This new initiative helped operators increase customer satisfaction – and sales – like never before! Nineties Bring the A LA CARTE® and Café Diem® Consumer tastes directly influenced merchandiser design at APi in the ’nineties. Ongoing market research included feedback from consumer focus groups that lead to innovative, new products. Consumers made it clear that more selectivity was desired, with stronger merchandising to communicate high-quality, branded products. New merchandisers would meet these demands. The Café Diem is raising the expectations of vended hot beverages The A LA CARTE® food system, introduced in 1997, met the need for increased selectivity and merchandising in food/ frozen vending. The glassfront design of the A LA CARTE provided increased product visibility. Frozen and refrigerated brand name products now had the visual appeal to attract customers at first glance. The Café Diem®, introduced in 1999, revolutionized the hot beverage vend category, dispensing up to fifteen freshly-brewed offerings, including latte, cappuccino, and other gourmet blended drinks. The dramatic back-lit graphics, contoured shape and merchandising appeal make this electronic café a profit-generating powerhouse for the vend operator. The New Millennium The Showcase 748 offers a carousel design ideal for fresh food vending. Robo Quencher's smooth robotics are revolutionizing cold beverage vending. APi is committed to being your complete vending equipment resource. And we continue to rely on the feedback of operators and consumers to design and build the vend solutions of tomorrow. New products like the Robo Quencher® cold beverage merchandiser, launched in 2002, are already revolutionizing the industry. In 2003 we added the Showcase 748 fresh food merchandiser, long the standard for refrigerated food vending, to complete our full line of best-in-class Premier™ Series merchandisers. As we progress into the 21st century, expect more new products and services that take your business to an even higher standard.
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