Washington DC, May 24th, 2018 - Vagabond (vgbnd.co) is proud to announce the newest member of the team, Scott Meskin, who joins the company as VP Strategic Business Innovations. Scott adds to Vagabond his 35+ years of experience in the convenience services industry. At Vagabond, he is focused on helping operators of all sizes add highly profitable business lines powered by Vagabond’s vīv Commerce and VMS platforms.
Realizing his passion for vending after a summer job in the industry, Scott started Black Tie Services in 1989. His father joined the team later on and the father-son duo set course as an industry leader in technology, efficient operations and customer service. Black Tie was an early adopter of telemetry, cashless and warehouse pre-kitting solutions. Additional profits resulting from those technology adoptions provided the company the resources to expand from 1 machine to roughly 7,000 machines, almost 100 micro markets, and office wholesaling services throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Scott’s success growing Black Tie culminated in being named NAMA’s Operator of the Year in 2016 and subsequently selling Black Tie Services to Accent Food Services at the end of 2016.
Scott’s expertise and trusted ability to provide an operator’s perspective regarding technology adoption have already benefited many of Vagabond’s existing members as he leverages his experience to help them grow their businesses. He also is a good sounding board as operators push beyond their comfort zones while adding viv’s Checkout, Business, Vending and Delivery offerings to their portfolios or expand their businesses beyond traditional food and beverage services. New Vagabond members are also benefiting from Scott’s experience during implementations of Vagabond’s VMS, Insight telemetry and/or vīv Commerce platforms.
“I’m excited and happy to be working with the Vagabond team, whom I have known since they showed me their VMS prototype 7 years go,” stated Meskin. “I have watched them grow and expand their offerings in DC over the years while I focused on Black Tie Services in the region. When the chance came up to partner with their innovative and forward-thinking team, I saw a perfect opportunity to use my knowledge and experience to continue serving the industry that I love and that has been so good to me. My goal is to help operators avoid the lessons I had to learn the hard way and use technology offerings from Vagabond and its partners to maximize their businesses like I did with Black Tie.”
“We’re constantly trying to bring more to the table for our member operators,” added Juan Jorquera, Vagabond’s Chief Revenue Officer. “Scott adds deep and direct operational experience as well as an intimate understanding of the needs of workplaces beyond vending, something our operators are already using to their advantage as they use vīv to expand sources of revenue.”
In addition to his operational excellence and know-how, Scott brings a passion for advocacy and awareness of the conveniences industry that will carry on at Vagabond. Scott actively participates in grassroots efforts at the state and federal level educating elected officials on
industry issues, testifying before the Maryland legislature in the past and continuing to participate in NAMA’s DC Fly-Ins.
About vīv: The vīv Commerce platform, powered by Vagabond (vgbnd.co), drives growth for food, beverage and facilities services companies by adding new revenue streams and encouraging commerce between them and their accounts. In addition, vīv helps businesses connect and support their local communities through targeted commerce. vīv can be used by consumers at vending machines and kiosk-less micro markets, by bakers selling bread to restaurants, by breweries delivering beer to homes, or by route operators catering to or selling office, breakroom, and janitorial supplies to other businesses in their area. vīv enables businesses to delight consumers with a beautiful targeted e-commerce experience while sourcing products that people want, where and when they want them. vīv establishes direct relationships between brands, retailers and individual consumers. Food, beverage and facility services providers bolster key personal relationships with accounts while adding substantial profits to the bottom line powered by vīv.
About Vagabond - (vgbnd.co) Vagabond makes technology solutions for the food & beverage services community. Its members are generally route-based businesses that provide vending, breakroom & facilities services to other businesses in their region. Vagabond’s software tools help them operate efficiently and also enable commerce between them and their accounts. Its operations solutions provide assistance with inventory management, product merchandising, route scheduling, and financial accountability. Its commerce solutions enable mobile payments at machines or markets while also enabling the ordering and fulfillment of catering, office, breakroom, and facilities supplies. By implementing Vagabond, operators can increase profits and expand their businesses. Their revenues are higher because they’re offering more ways to pay and adding revenue streams by promoting all types of route-based commerce using the operations infrastructure they’ve already built. Theft is eliminated and costs are contained because fewer drivers are driving fewer miles servicing more products to more accounts.
