16-10-2023 12:22    Vincent

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The number of vending machines in Europe continues to climb

The latest European Vending & Coffee Service Association (EVA) market report was presented for recently at the EVEX 2023 in Bucharest. As usual the report gives a broad overview of the trends of the vending industry market. 

This year’s report provides a detailed analysis of 24 vending and Office Coffee Service (OCS) markets as well as a new contemporary and easier to understand layout.

The recovery is on

Across Europe, the new report clearly demonstrates that the pandemic recovery that commenced in 2021 continues, with machine fieldbase, vends and revenue all showing positive growth compared to last year. All positive indicators for the sector.  Indeed the post-Covid growth rates show that an increase in consumption coupled with significant price rises help mitigate the effects in inflation and hybrid working.

To be fully read in context we need to look back to pre-pandemic levels and in this case it appears more complex. Compared to 2019 levels, while machine numbers are slightly higher, vends and revenue are both significantly lower. Vends are more than 20% down which could demonstrate a more permanent reduction due to a seemingly settled partial working from home rhythm. 

Some of the findings and info from the report

• The total number of machines across Europe continues to climb; now at 4.45 million.
• The Italian market again counts the largest fieldbase with 826,000 machines.
• The Netherlands is now the largest market in terms of vends, with 4.85 billion - an impressive 15% increase from 2021
• The German market revenue is €2.8 billion, an increase of 16% from 2021 and the largest market by revenue.
• Micromarkets number almost 6,500 across Europe and are showing impressive year-on-year growth.
• There are more operators using smart fridges than micromarkets, and suppliers are increasing strongly.

Erwin Wetzel, EVA Director General, commented on the report, "What really strikes me in the new report is that for the first time OCS now makes up more than a third of the total industry in terms of machines.

Looking more widely, the report statistics show a bit of a mixed bag. All the key indicators look good if we compare to the previous year, but it's clear that the industry is still quite far from 2019 levels. The question we need to explore going forward is how operators can compensate for the seemingly permanent loss of vends from hybrid working.” 

This year, the report also provides for the first time some insights into smart fridge and water dispensers, categories that the EVA plans to explore in greater depth in the coming editions.

More info : www.vending-europe.eu