From junk to veg

Ennevelin: With business selling chocolate bars to office workers in meltdown owing to the covid crisis, French vending machine makers have turned to experts on growth: farmers. And for farmers who want to reach consumers directly, vending machines offer a way to meet new demand and respect health regulations.

Vending machines have been popping up alongside highways and near farms, and one of the main beneficiaries has been Le Casier Francais, which is swamped by orders and expects to double the 1.2 million euros ($1.5 million) in sales it posted last year. The small firm of 22 employees based in northern France designs and builds vending machines, including refrigerated models that are connected to the internet.

Since the coronavirus crisis pushed France to impose its first lockdown in March, business has been booming. “We receive a dozen inquiries a day,” said the company’s director Manuel Moutier. Not all result in an order, however, and it takes time to finalise a project that often includes bank financing. But Moutier says they now have “new clients, such as company cafeterias and delicatessens so they can offer dishes at any hour”.

A machine from Le Casier Francais with a hundred small lockers costs 40,000-50,000 euros ($48,000-60,000). It is a sizeable investment, but one that some producers say quickly pays for itself. Benoit Soufflet, who farms vegetables outside the northern city of Lille, installed a machine with 60 lockers at the beginning of July. “In three months the 30,000 euros invested has already been recovered,” he said, thanks to 10,000-15,000 euros in revenue generated each month. “Our farms are located alongside a supermarket … and a lot of people would stop and ask to buy a salad or a bunch of radishes, that gave us the idea,” he added.

“I didn’t expect such sales, it works better than our farm store,” Marie Froment, who installed a vending machine with 88 lockers near her farm in Thun-Saint-Amand, a village of 1,100 residents close to the border with Belgium. The machine sells her dairy products along with other local produce including vegetables, apple juice, eggs and waffles. “With Covid, people prefer to use the vending machine than go into the store,” she said.