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2010 in retrospect

Uncle Sam

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I am happy to report that 2010 was a better than last year for ShurVend. The continuing “sluggish economy seeking lower price points” focuses our attention on adjusting and making changes to meet the market. Everyone has been and are operating very “lean” these days, so we have to work very hard at everything, but we adjust and change every day!!

• We announced in March the development of a new medium security line of vendors at a lower price point for those washes that did not need the more expensive high security line
• CAR CARE WORLD EXPO in May @ Las Vegas was very informative for us; we made some very good contacts that developed into multiple sales during the year and we received the opportunity to develop a new small vendor for the car wash operations of a C-Store chain here in California. A sobering fact we learned from a customer was that many closed (or foreclosed) washes were being reopened and managed on contract by operators with years of experience; one particular company was managing 10 sites for a bank, but could not spend any money upgrading them. On the bright side some financially strong and successful operators are buying up some foreclosed washes for 25-cents on the dollar, upgrading, and adding them to their operations.
• At the request of customers who were upgrading their washes, ShurVend started delivering and installing new vendors on sites because the operators wanted “plug and play”; i.e. plug the vendor in and have revenue start flowing. Since vendor technicians are a non-existent breed these days, ShurVend started going out to visit our customers to fix their vendor problems if we could not solve them by talking to operators over the phone.

Cont'd
 

Uncle Sam

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• We used the C-Store vendor request to design a small, Hi-Security, free standing machine to adjust our thinking to build a simple, easy to operate vendor that met the demands of the C-Store market. From this simple beginning two more models of this vendor style morphed into the White Lightnin’ 10-selection vendor and, most recently, into the 18-selection vendor built specifically for the car wash market.
• Our vendor manufacturer adopted the new S-3 Sensit system this year which made obsolete the older S-1 and S-2 systems; this created some unexpected problems in the field. The S-3 system may be very advanced in technology, but it did not work well with the older florescent lighting we had in the vendors. We had to switch to LED lighting to overcome the interference problems in the Sensit system. Technology is great most of the time, but it can be very frustrating.
• One of the most promising markets for vending is the growth of the Express Exterior (EE) segment of the car wash business and the realization that vending revenue is available when you have a captive audience using the free vacuums that are part of some EE business plans. We are seeing more and more EE operators installing vendors at their new sites. An AutoCareForum post made by “smokun” last August under “Express Washes” outlines the reasons for adding vending to the EE format. We think this post is right on the money.

My crystal ball for 2011 is not very clear, so who knows how the economy will do; all we know is that it will change so ShurVend will adjust and change as the market dictates. If you have special requirements for your vending center, call ShurVend to design a vending system just for you.

Uncle Sam :)
 
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