Food vendor, Pepi goes more M2M

Cutting the time-to-cash is important for any business, but the need is arguably more urgent for those specialising in small ticket, self-service retailing business operations. Here, cashless payment and Machine to Machine (M2M) telemetry can have a significant impact.

This is why The Pepi Companies, a food, coffee and vending service provider based out of Dothan, Alabama, have signed up for an exclusive agreement with USA Technologies (USAT) for the latter’s new Integrated Payments Services as an adjunct to its existing cashless-enabled vending network. The pair will be used across Pepi’s business—from vending to micro-market, from mobile payment to cafeteria/food service point of sale.

 “Pepi’s progressive use of connected technology embodies the spirit of USAT’s presence at this year’s NAMA OneShow where we plan to showcase the strength and versatility of our service capabilities in self-serve retail”

Pepi was USAT’s first customer to initiate a complete conversion to cashless payment and telemetry on its vending machines, a project completed at the end of 2012. Under this new agreement, Pepi plans to substantially expand its relationship with USAT by leveraging USAT products, services and add-on integration capabilities across all of Pepi’s other business segments.

This will includetraditional vending using USAT’s turnkey ePort and ePort Connect cashless payment and telemetry products and services. Pepi will also have the ability to integrate other third-party devices certified on USAT’s ePort Connect network.

For Pepi’s micro-marketsas well as its dining servicepoint of sale, The company’s technology partner used QuickConnect to integrate with USAT for streamlined payment services. In addition, for its office coffee services and direct store deliveries,Pepi will useUSAT’s ePort Mobile solution to integrate payments with other business segments.

Finally, USAT’s loyalty and prepaid programme, More,will be accessible by participating consumers using any of these payment acceptance options.

“Implementing cashless on all our vending machines greatly enhanced our customer experience, but it was just the beginning for Pepi,” said Vic Pemberton, chief executive officer and founder of The Pepi Companies. “The marketplace for a traditional vending operator is much more complex now than it was before. Many of us have micro-markets, more operators are getting into coffee services and other direct store deliveries, and others are expanding their portfolio of convenient and fresh food services. By putting this agreement together with USAT, our goal was to build an infrastructure to simplify cash flow and operations, save on rates and shrinkage and bring more value to our consumers.”

Pepi is building a marketing campaign around this extended partnership based on the slogan ‘Simply More, Simply Better,’ where `Simply Better’ is about creating a foundation that integrates all credit and debit card processing, while  `Simply More’ is about enhancing the customer’s experience.