USA Technologies, Inc. and The Pepi Companies announce the successful completion of Pepi’s transition to 100 percent cashless. Pepi, a food, vending and coffee solutions business serving the states of Alabama, Georgia and Florida, is believed to be the first full-service food and beverage vending company that offers cashless on all its vending equipment. Pepi utilizes USAT’s market- leading ePort® cashless payment technology and comprehensive ePort Connect® service for its vending machine base.
Two years ago, Vic Pemberton, president and founder of The Pepi Companies, and USAT began working on a plan to roll out a cashless solution to Pepi’s vending machine base over the course of a five-year period. According to the release, Pemberton, in light of outstanding customer response to the machines already offering cashless and his observations that customers rarely carried cash, made the decision in early 2012 to accelerate that timetable, with a goal of reaching 100 percent cashless for the remainder of his machine base by the end of 2012.
“At Pepi, we don’t believe cashless is an option in our business any longer — it’s a necessity,” said Pemberton, in a prepared statement. “From a consumer perspective, the younger generation just doesn’t carry cash anymore and we need to overcome that. The idea of any potential customer walking by our machines and not being able to buy something is just bad business.
“In addition, technology’s impact on our industry is moving at a fast pace,” added Pemberton. “Cashless can help offset volume declines associated with price increases, customers can multi-vend and USAT’s Two-Tier Pricing Program provides additional flexibility from a cost perspective. And, as I look toward the future, there have never been so many opportunities brewing to strengthen customer relationships and create new revenue sources. Moving to 100 percent cashless adoption was just our first step.
“Our customers are increasingly asking for mobile payment capabilities, prepaid, couponing and loyalty rewards programs,” continued Pemberton. “We believe that USAT, as our service partner, is best positioned to offer all these through its ePort Connect service in a turnkey, easy-to-implement and scalable way. We believe 100 percent cashless gives us the necessary infrastructure to capture the incremental upside now, while we pave the way for new opportunities in the future,” concluded Pemberton.
Stephen P. Herbert, chairman and CEO of USA Technologies, said, “We are very proud to work with The Pepi Companies on this important milestone in the food and beverage vending industry. We believe that their innovation and leadership is enabling Pepi to harness the benefits of connected machines, including cashless payments and telemetry data, across their entire business, setting an example for the many traditionally cash-based businesses looking to reinvigorate their business models for today’s consumers. We look forward to working with Pepi on many of the expanded services USAT has underway.”
