Healthy Vending Machines Keep Employees in the Office, Increase Productivity and Decrease Absenteeism
SAN DIEGO, Jun 27, 2012
Fresh Healthy Vending announces it has pledged support for National Employee Wellness Month. The month-long initiative helps business leaders learn from best practices of how companies are developing successful strategies around prevention and good health, in an effort to engage employees in healthy eating and exercise, which will in turn help to reduce healthcare costs.
Fresh Healthy Vending is targeting offices for its new and exclusive Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe, the world’s only vending machine that offers both specialty organic coffee drinks, along with an assortment of healthy snacks.
Excessive healthcare costs are a concern for every company, as costs continue to rise more than 10 percent annually, with no relief in sight. Employees are also feeling the strain, paying more out of pocket for higher premiums. Forward-thinking companies are taking action to control rising healthcare costs by focusing on prevention as a proven strategy to counter the trend.
“Offering employees options such as the Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe have become a must for small and medium size companies with 100 or more employees,” said Dan Negroni, CEO of Fresh Healthy Vending. “We are in the process of launching a nationwide campaign to educate companies across the U.S. on why healthy eating in the workplace can play a powerful role in helping employees make healthier eating choices, resulting in a positive impact on costly lifestyle-related diseases.”
Offering healthier options, such as those found in our Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe, is proven to lower health insurance premiums for business owners, increase productivity amongst employees, as the healthy products in the machine are not filled with unhealthy sugars, such as those found in energy drinks and soda. This new healthy vending cafe also decreases the chances of employee absenteeism, as the machine offers nine selections of cafe quality organic coffee, conveniently meaning business owners don’t have to worry about employees running to Starbucks or their local barista in the hope of finding a quality gourmet coffee.
“It’s a win-win for business owners which ever way they look at it,” added Negroni.
Fresh Healthy Vending is quickly becoming the business of choice for socially responsible entrepreneurs that want to be a catalyst for change in their community. Offering profitable solutions to obvious problems has been the basis for the company’s success as it continues leading the way as the nation’s largest and most successful healthy vending company.
Fresh Healthy Vending’s New Program Offers Double the Profit by Offering Gourmet Organic Coffee and Healthy Drinks and Snacks
SAN DIEGO, June 21, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fresh Healthy Vending has changed the way consumers perceive vending machines by offering healthy snacks and drinks in over 1600 locations across the US and now it has its sights set on the $50 billion a year specialty coffee market with the introduction of its new Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe.
The Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe instantly grinds organic beans and brews fresh coffee specialty drinks, such as mochas and vanilla lattes, in less than 30 seconds, and also vends high margin healthy snacks and drinks from another compartment on the machine.
“These automated kiosks feature the highest profit margins of any snack or beverage vending machines in the market. The coffee drinks cost less than 40 cents each to make and sell for up to $2.50 each which, provide substantial profit for our operators,” said Dan Negroni, CEO of Fresh Healthy Vending.
The profit margin on the Healthy Vending Cafe’s will be similar to what brick and mortar retailers enjoy, without any of the overhead of employees. Fresh Healthy Vending believes its Healthy Vending Cafe will reinvent the coffee consumption experience for consumers, especially in captive locations, such as corporate offices, where employees will no longer need to run to the closest Barista in order to get a much desired Cafe Latte, Cappuccino, or even an iced tea, juice, or smoothie.
Launching new products and services is a hallmark of Fresh Healthy Vending and its strategy of being best-in-class in the vending industry has yielded impressive results in the few short years that the company has been in business. Fresh Healthy Vending is in the process of advancing and developing new kiosk and vending technologies as it is well aware that consumers are more technologically savvy and are looking for healthy snacks and drinks “on the go.”
The specialty vending trends are expected to rise throughout the next decade. Research firm IHL Group estimates the North American market for automated kiosks will exceed $1.1 trillion in 2015, up from the $650 million in 2010.
Fresh Healthy Vending has developed this ground breaking business model for motivated entrepreneurs who want to be among the first to bring Fresh Healthy Vending Cafe’s to locations in their communities, aiming to be one of the hottest franchise opportunities of the 21st Century.
Fresh Healthy Vending Café aims to become Starbucks’ biggest competitor within the next five years. While some may have a difficult time with the concept, their high-tech vending machines serve up fresh brewed organic coffee within seconds, and for a fraction of the cost. It just so happens that these innovative machines also offer a range of delicious natural, organic and healthy snacks. For consumers, it comes as a delicious way to save money. For entrepreneurs, it provides a rock-solid way to gain an edge in the business market, as the trend gains momentum and machines are placed around the country.
“Our strategy is to bring great coffee to new and unexpected locations as well as healthy snacks and drinks where it’s traditionally been hard to find these high quality products” said Dan Negroni, CEO of Fresh Healthy Vending. “We believe our Fresh Healthy Vending Café will definitely change the way people think about coffee as the specialty coffee products coming out of our machines are on par with what people expect from a barista at their local coffee shop and to top that off they can purchase a healthy snack or cold drink from the refrigerated section of our machines by just putting in cash or a credit card.”
Fresh Healthy Vending is prepared to install its revolutionary new Fresh Healthy Vending Café kiosk in offices, universities, grocery, drug, and mass merchant retail channels, across the country. The machines feature Organic coffee specialty drinks, along with an assortment of healthy snacks and cold drinks. The premier machine is the first of its kind to hit America.
The Fresh Healthy Vending Café kiosk rollout will begin in summer 2012, with 500 kiosks expected to be placed by the end of the year, and thousands of kiosks expected to be placed over the next several years. The kiosks occupy roughly eight square feet, and grind and brew fresh whole beans in a single cup, as well as specialty coffee drinks such as vanilla lattes and cappuccinos, with price points beginning at $1.00 per cup of coffee with more specialty drinks costing up to $2.50 per cup. The kiosk also features an assortment of organic and natural snacks and cold drinks in the refrigerated section of the kiosk including fresh juices, fruit, energy bars, and other health snacks, at price points between $1.00 and $3.00.
The company has targeted a run-rate of $15,000-$40,000 in annual revenue per kiosk depending on the foot traffic of the particular location.
”With the overwhelming response we’ve had from consumers and locations to our nationwide network of 1500 healthy vending machines, we’ve had weekly requests from locations asking us if we could provide a high quality coffee vending machine,” added Negroni. “We’ve listened, and now our growing franchise network is excited about the prospect for placing thousands of Fresh Healthy Vending Café kiosks nationwide over the next few years.”
The Baxter Street hill can be a miserable hike for freshmen at UGA, but Byron and Donna Marshall remember it fondly.
“We first met on the hill between Brumby and Russell,” Byron says. “We both grew up in Columbus, Ga., and we knew a lot of the same people, but we had never met.”
Byron (BBA ’97) and Donna (BS ’98) got married in the summer of 2002 after Byron finished grad school at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The couple also lived in New York and Princeton, N.J., where Donna attended Rutgers University for grad school, before moving back to Athens to be closer to family.
Donna worked in research at the food and nutrition lab at UGA, but after giving birth to their second child, she decided to find a job where she could work from home. She read about Fresh! Healthy Vending and saw it as a great opportunity to make a difference.
Fresh! Healthy Vending works like a franchise where people can buy the rights to an area and a minimum of 10 machines. Donna and Byron own the rights to Clarke, Oconee and Gwinnett counties. Their first 10 machines are in such places as schools, dance studios and the YMCA.
“It really depends on how fast you want to go,” says Byron, who is a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Atlanta. “We are adding more machines. One will be at River Club Apartments [in Athens], and we are trying to discuss getting one at the hospital here. We would love to be at UGA!”
There are over 600 products to select for the machines, all of them preservative, wheat and gluten free and processed in facilities that are free of peanuts and soy products. The machines can include cold products, like yogurt, smoothies and milk, as well as snacks like baked chips, pretzels and yogurt bars. Prices range from about $1 to $2.25.
“It’s really important to start kids with good eating habits,” says Donna, who runs the business. “More children are diagnosed with Type II diabetes than adults. It’s scary.”
“Continuing to give healthy options for kids and change their eating habits is the most important thing we can do with this job.”
SAN DIEGO, June 5, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Recently there has been a lot of news about the banning of large, sugary soft drinks. Mayor Bloomberg of New York City is aiming to do just that, while many schools and office buildings around the nation are pulling the soft drinks from their shelves and vending machines. While such drinks may pose much-discussed health risks, the good news is that there are plenty of healthier, low- and no-sugar options, just a button-push away!
“People have begun to see the problem with some of the beverage choices that are readily available,” explains Dan Negroni, chief executive officer and president of Fresh Healthy Vending Café (freshvending.com). “We identified that problem years ago, and it is our mission to make a change by offering a lot of healthier choices in our vending machines.”
According to “Circulation,” the Journal of the American Heart Association, between 1970 and 2000, the per-person daily consumption of caloric soft drinks rose 70 percent, from an average of 7.8 ounces per day, to 13.2 ounces per day. They report that the mean sugar intake for children ages 14-18 is around 22.2 teaspoons per day, which comes out to around 355 calories. The recommendation for adults, when it comes to daily sugar intake, are for women to consume no more than 100 calories from sugar, and men to consume no more than 150 calories from sugar per day. For children, it is recommended that those under 8 have no more than 3 teaspoons per day, and older children have no more than 5 to 8 teaspoons per day.
For many people reading beverage labels, figuring out the sugar content can be a bit confusing. Sugar is listed on the nutrition label in grams. To determine how many teaspoons it equals, divide the grams by four. One teaspoon of sugar equals four grams. For example, if you are looking at a soda that contains 40 grams of sugar, simply divide by four, and you will quickly see that it contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. Each teaspoon of sugar has around 16 calories, so a single can of that soda has around 160 calories of sugar.
Fresh Healthy Vending’s mission focuses on providing people with healthier food and beverage options. In its vending machines, consumers will find a variety of healthier drinks that are either low in sugar or naturally sugar-free, including:
Coconut water and coconut juice – Coconut juice contains 12 grams of sugar and 95 calories, while coconut water has zero calories and zero grams of sugar. Flavors include mango, passion fruit, pineapple, and pink guava. Hint Premium Essence Water – For those who want to hydrate but like a little flavor, these waters have zero calories and zero sugar, and come in tangerine, lime, and kiwi. Honest Tea – Drinking black tea offers antioxidants and no calories or sugar. Those who want to opt for lemon or peach tea will find it has just 8 grams of sugar. Coffee – Leaving the sugar behind, Fresh Healthy Café machines offer freshly brewed organic coffee. No sugar, and it offers health benefits. Mayesa – For the person who wants something unique, there is Mayesa, an all-natural chocolate drink that comes in original and mint flavors. It’s made from organic cacao, the purest form of chocolate, along with hemp protein, rice, and spices. Also, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, kosher and vegan. It has 13 grams of sugar.
“There is a whole world of healthier beverages beyond sugary sodas,” adds Negroni. “We have helped make these healthier drinks convenient, so people can grab them on the go. The large sugary sodas may be banned, but flavored and guilt-free options are more bountiful than ever before!”
Fresh Healthy Vending offers high-tech vending machines that offer healthy foods and beverages, including gourmet organic coffee. The machines are located in such places as workout facilities, military bases, office buildings, and hospitals. They are also ideal for such places as car dealerships and buildings with high traffic. To learn more, visit their site at www.freshhealthyvending.com.
Fresh Healthy Vending’s New Program Offers Double the Profit by Offering Gourmet Organic Coffee and Healthy Drinks and Snacks
