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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Alberts

The Great Vending Reinvention: The Spoon’s Smart Vending Machine Market Report

Thanks to advances in hardware, the internet of things, and food preparation, vending machines today are basically restaurants in a box. They offer high-end cuisine in minutes, require minimal setup time, and have the on-board computing smarts to manage inventory and communicate any issues that arise.

With these capabilities, it’s no wonder the vending machine category was valued at more than $30 billion in 2018, according to Grandview Research, and was anticipated to have a CAGR of 9.4 percent from 2019 through 2025.

Had this report been written even just a few months ago, the main takeaway would have been that vending machines are perfect for high-traffic areas that operate around the clock: airports, corporate offices, college dorms, and hospitals.

But we’re living in a world continuously being shaped and reshaped by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Right now, some form of shelter-in-place orders blanket most of the U.S. Global air travel volume has plummeted, so airports are not busy. Non-essential businesses are closed and people are working from home, not office buildings. And colleges may not hold in-person classes until 2021.

While on the surface, those factors suggest vending machine companies will be yet-another sector wiped out by coronavirus, there has actually never been a better time for the automated vending machine industry. The small footprint and high-end food these devices offer are perhaps more important than ever at a time when minimizing human-to-human contact in foodservice is paramount to doing business. That makes the vending machine market uniquely positioned to capitalize on a post-pandemic world.

This report will define what the automated vending machine space is, list the major players, and present the challenges and opportunities for the market going forward.

Companies profiled in this report include Alberts, API Tech/Smart Pizza, Basil Street, Blendid, Briggo, Byte Technology, Cafe X, Chowbotics, Crown Coffee, Farmer’s Fridge, Fresh Bowl, Le Bread Xpress, Macco Robotics, TrueBird, and Yo-Kai Express.

This research report is exclusive for Spoon Plus members. You can learn more about Spoon Plus here.

Here’s The Spoon’s 2019 Food Robotics Market Map

Today we head to San Francisco for The Spoon’s first-ever food-robotics event. ArticulAte kicks off at 9:05 a.m. sharp at the General Assembly venue in SF, and throughout the daylong event talk will be about all things robots, from the technology itself to business and regulatory issues surrounding it. When you stop and look around the food industry, whether it’s new restaurants embracing automation or companies changing the way we get our groceries, it’s easy to see why the food robotics market is projected to be a $3.1 billion market by 2025. But there’s no one way to make a robot, and so to give you a sense of who’s who in this space, and to celebrate the start of ArticulAte, The Spoon’s editors put together this market map of the food robotics landscape. This is the first edition of this map, which we’ll improve and build upon as the market changes and grows. If you have any suggestions for other companies or see ones we missed you think should be in there, let us know by leaving a comment below or emailing us at tips@thespoon.tech. Click on the map below to enlarge it. The Food Robotics Market 2019:

Alberts Brings Robot Smoothie Stations to Europe

The best way to start a story about Alberts robot Smoothie Stations is with an anecdote Co-Founder and CTO Glenn Mathijssen told me. When asked why their company was called “Alberts,” he said that they were trying to bring intelligent solutions to the market. Which made them think of Albert Einstein and the famous photo of him sticking his tongue out. “We’re not Einsteins, but we’re Alberts,” he said.

You can see this smart yet playful approach imbued in Alberts Smoothie Station. The bright, colorful robotic vending machines found in Brussels, Belgium, have transparent fronts so you can see the fresh fruit and vegetables (no yogurts, milks, juices or other sugar-adding ingredients) that it will blend into a smoothie for you, on the spot.

Out of the box, the Alberts Smoothie Station has six menus, but you can customize them to your liking if you download their app. For instance, you can specify that you want more mango and less banana, or more vitamin C. Using a QR code in the app, a Smoothie Station can “recognize” you, and already know how to prepare your preferred drink. Each smoothie costs between €3 and €3.5 (roughly $4.00 USD), and you can pay with your credit card, or through the accompanying mobile app.

Additionally, Alberts gives users the options of connecting their calendars to its system, so the Smoothie Stations will know if you just exercised and can ping you with a suggestion for a thirst-quenching blend. Mathijssen said the company is looking at additional ways of connecting Smoothie Stations with devices like your phone or FitBit to automatically know who you are, and any activity you might have partaken in, but there are privacy considerations to address (GDPR, anyone?).

Hello! We're Alberts from Alberts Smoothie Station - Intro Video - Smoothie Machine Made in Belgium

While Alberts makes smoothies, it is solely in the machine renting business. Their customers are existing food locations, like supermarkets or catering companies, who already have their own frozen food suppliers to keep each Smoothie Station stocked. The machines are self-cleaning, and only require someone on-site to make sure they don’t run out of any ingredients and address any maintenance issues. Each unit costs a location €495 a month, and Alberts gets a small percentage of every transaction.

Based in Brussels, Alberts has raised €675,000 (~$836,000), and has started looking for its Series A round. Right now, there are five Alberts Smoothie Stations around Brussels, with another five planned for release in Brussels and Antwerp. Mathijssen said that he is also fielding calls from “more than 50 countries” about potential franchise opportunities.

Alberts isn’t alone in rolling out robot smoothie servers. Just a few weeks ago, 6d bytes debuted its Blendid robot smoothie maker. However, Blendid is a larger installation and is more robot-like with its swiveling arm that prepares your smoothies.

If these automated smoothie-robots take off, and can whip up delicious drinks around the clock with a small footprint and no personnel, the days of Jamba Juice (as we know it) are numbered. It doesn’t take an Einstein to see that.