School Case Studies

Healthy vending for Great Torrington Community School

Westomatic has been part of a pilot scheme with South West-based operator, Select Vending Ltd, who are working closely with Devon Direct Services and Devon Procurement to offer a new healthy vending service for schools.

The three companies were involved in siting machines at Great Torrington Community School, which had been considering introducing vending to complement their catering service for some time.

Since the installation of a Westomatic SnackTime Duo in March 2005, they haven’t looked back. The innovative two-temperature snack and drink vending machine offers the 900-plus pupils a wide choice of healthy snacks and drinks including products such as crispbread snacks, cereal and fruit bars, a selection of refrigerated sandwiches and wraps freshly made on the premises, bottled water, fruit juice and milkshakes.

But what do the children think? Well so far it has been a resounding success! In fact Chris Sturman in year 9 was the first pupil to make use of the new machine and he has been very impressed; “I now use the machine regularly and my favourites are the crispbread snacks and the drinks.”

Head Teacher Di Nicholson and Kitchen Manager Lorraine Harris have been overwhelmed with the popularity of the machine. “We are currently filling the machine twice a day and are considering the possibility of siting a second machine to keep up with the demand. The machine is the centre of attention during break times!” explains Lorraine.

Here at Westomatic we are also thrilled at the level of uptake and the positive response from the staff and, critically, the school children. “It’s almost the stuff of dreams to see the children actually queuing to use the machine and buy the healthy products on offer” comments our Marketing Manager, Mark Rhodes. “We need to remember that children are the next generation of vending users and the success of this site just goes to show that, by working together, manufacturers and operators can play a proactive part in providing healthy refreshment in schools as well as the workplace.”

Torquay Girls Grammar School

Torquay Girls Grammar School installed a refreshment ‘bank’ of Westomatic’s machines to serve up a complete range of healthy snacks, drinks and chilled mains fed filtered water at their school site in Devon.

Karen Northway, Catering Manager for the school comments: ‘Westomatic’s machines have been a huge success. The pupils often purchase beverages from the OTIS and refill the bottles with water from the Azure. The ‘bank’ which includes; an OTIS, Solo Encore, Azure and SnackPoint machine (which we fill with healthy options such as dried fruit and nutritious cereal bars) provide an essential ‘before and after canteen hours’ service for pupils and teachers which helps to keep sales up’.