Activend, Inc

Description

Learning the business from his dad, Lance Lindgren continues to provide state-of-the-art equipment and personal service. Vending provides a good life for him and his family. Lance Lindgren has found guaranteed product delivery a great customer convenience for his machines. Having the ability to service his larger accounts daily has been a great advantage. Gone are the days when less than a thousand dollars bought a reliable soda or candy machine. Candy bars that cost less than a nickel apiece and yielded more than a 50 percent gross margin have also disappeared. And in many ways, for the better. After all, who wants to go back to the time when many vending service vehicles looked like they'd been through the war and the driver didn't wear a uniform? The cost of entry into the business today is much higher, with closed-front soda machines and glassfront candy/snack machines costing more than $2,000, and glassfront soda machines that cost even more. A more professional image has brought a higher cost of entry into the business. But don't be fooled. It's still an entrepreneur-driven industry, and the higher cost of entry has not discouraged ambitious people from making a good living for themselves. Allan Gilbert, senior financial editor of Automatic Merchandiser, explained in the October 2002 issue that vending continues to offer a viable opportunity to entrepreneurs who know what they're doing. Gilbert, a 50-year industry veteran, noted a start-up with 50 machines that were fully paid for could produce $100,000 per year in cash flow, if the machines were placed in locations that produced more than $100 per week in sales, per machine, with product costs of 50 percent or less, and commission costs of 10 percent or less. Gilbert further noted that if the same operator decides to grow, he will have to hire employees and these returns will drop dramatically. While it's true that some "mom and pop" operators cut corners and hurt the industry's image, the same holds true for larger companies. And when "mom and pop" operators do it right, they do the industry a service as much as the larger companies. And they are doing it every day. Meet Lance Lindgren, owner of Acti-Vend Incorporated, Seattle, Wash. Having recently turned 30 years old, Lindgren manages about 100 machines that give him and his wife and two children a comfortable life. The Lindgrens recently purchased a new home in a Seattle suburb. Lindgren, whose job affords him the flexibility to arrange family and work time to his liking, doesn't plan on changing anything about his life until he retires. As a one-man business, Lindgren has the ability to react immediately to customer needs, know customers on a first-name basis, enjoy low operating overhead, and be free of the hassles of managing employees. This is not to say it's a hassle-free life. Lindgren has to pay for his own benefits. He is the only one on the firing line when unexpected problems arise. At any time, his personal life can be interrupted to handle a service call. And his business is as vulnerable to shifts in the economy as anyone's. Lindgren's fiscal 2001 witnessed a 10 percent dip in top line sales.

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