Vending market growth to be offset by Covid-19 – EVA report

The vending sector was delivering sustained revenue growth in almost all European markets before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report released by the European Vending and Coffee Service Association (EVA).

The report is the eighth edition of the EVA’s annual market summary and is based on 2019 data. According to the report, total annual revenue rose 3.4% year-on-year to €17.2 billion, while the number of installed vending machines grew 1.1% to 4.16 million.

While growth was observed in 21 out of the 22 markets covered in the report, the EVA claims that the severe impact of Covid-19 on the industry from Spring 2020 onwards will offset this sustained growth. 

According to the EVA, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is responsible for a significant reduction in sales, vends and turnover in 2020, and at a much higher scale than during the economic and financial crisis in 2008. 

The association claims that the full assessment of the crisis on the industry will not be available until the release of the 2021 EVA report, which will include data from 2020.

Despite this, the EVA claims that the newly-released 2020 report identifies longer-term trends within vending & office coffee service – which should remain after the pandemic.

Key findings from the 2020 report include:

• In Europe, vending machines sell 99 million food and beverage items every day;
• Hot beverages now represent 80% of the total market in terms of the number of vends;
• There are around 185 Europeans per vending machine but this varies dramatically from 60 people/machine in the Netherlands to 1,850 in Turkey;
• Over 80% of European machines are located in the workplace;
• Ukraine has seen the largest market increase, with fieldbase growth of 10.4% and 28% growth in revenue within the last five years;
• Across European vending, paper cups are now more common than plastic beverage cups, but significant individual market differences apply;
• Micro markets have now been reported in 13 of the 22 markets covered, with Sweden and Russia leading the way.

The full version of the 2020 report is available to EVA members via the EVA secretariat, and further information can be found on the EVA website.