Celebrating success, innovation, and community in 2024…
Just like that, another year is behind us. 2024 was Coinadrink’s 62nd year trading and it was definitely one to remember! As has been a bit of a tradition in recent years, we can now present to you our year in review, so grab a hot drink, put your feet up, and take some time to relax over a read.
January: Demonstrating the best of commercial coffee machines during Veganuary
Coinadrink embraced Veganuary by showcasing the versatility of its tabletop and office coffee machines, catering to the increasing demand for plant-based drink options. These machines ensure workplaces can offer inclusive, vegan-friendly beverages without compromising on quality.
The initiative reflects Coinadrink’s dedication to sustainability and meeting modern consumer preferences, offering innovative refreshment solutions that align with contemporary lifestyles.
January: Turning the tables on “Blue Monday”
On 15th January, “Blue Monday” became “Brew Monday” as we turned our showroom into a welcoming space for staff to connect over a hot drink, some fruit, or a slice of cake. Prioritising team wellbeing, management were available throughout the day for open conversations. Staff were also reminded of their free, 24/7 access to support through the BHSF membership.
February: Coinadrink’s first ever staff social event!
In February, Coinadrink held its first-ever staff social event at Flight Club, Birmingham, highlighting the company’s commitment to employee wellbeing and morale. This gathering allowed team members to bond outside the workplace, fostering a sense of unity and appreciation.
The positive feedback following the evening was wonderful and was spoken about by everyone for a long time afterwards—so much so that we are keen to host another staff social going into 2025.
February: How we drive education and development
February also saw plenty of opportunities for us to promote our commitment to education and development, both for our own team and future generations. We shared an informative interview with our Managing Director, Tom Williams, which you can find on all our social platforms and YouTube channel, where he discusses our longstanding apprenticeship programme.
Later in the month, Tom attended a Careers Fair at Walsall College, highlighting how a career in the vending industry can be an insightful step for college students.
March: A tea party in support of Dementia UK
Dementia UK is a charity close to the hearts of many here, so early March saw us host an internal tea party where staff could enjoy a bite to eat and a hot drink in support of an excellent cause. In fact, we raised just shy of £50!
March: Goodbye plastic, hello paper!
Coinadrink took a significant step towards sustainability in March by introducing paper vending cups as a replacement for plastic ones in our machines. This eco-friendly change was part of the company’s broader commitment to reducing single-use plastics and minimising environmental impact.
While maintaining the same high-quality user experience, this initiative reflected our proactive approach to sustainability, meeting the needs of environmentally conscious customers and leading the way in the vending industry.
March: Winding down for Easter in style!
Easter was early this year, and prior to our team enjoying a long weekend, we hosted a fabulous buffet in our showroom. Delicious homemade turkey, stuffing, and gravy baps were beautifully prepared by members of the team, rounded off by a selection of treats including homemade hot cross buns, Mini Egg tray bakes, Biscoff cupcakes, and more. It was certainly a delicious lunch!
To round off the fun, staff could help themselves to an Easter egg bought for everyone—just a little way to say thank you for their continued efforts.
April: Customer spotlight – National Veterinary Services
In April, we put the spotlight on National Veterinary Service (NVS) for our customer newsletter, one of Coinadrink’s valued long-term customers. By understanding the unique requirements of the veterinary sector, Coinadrink provided a variety of vending machine services and a superb Micro Market facility to the NVS team last year, aiding their wellbeing and productivity. It was great to hear from our contact at the business, who shared the positive impact our services have had.
May: Supporting Dementia UK through “Time for a Cuppa”
We returned from the May Day Bank Holiday to our “Time for a Cuppa” charity event, again supporting Dementia UK. The Coinadrink team have always been excellent bakers, and they displayed a wonderful spread this time around, too, with homemade lemon meringue and chocolate cake perhaps the highlights. We raised £42.45.
May: Supporting our teams’ mental health
In mid-May, we used Mental Health Awareness Week to check in with our team and promote the benefits of self-care.
Mental health problems can affect anyone at any time, and throughout the week, we hosted a variety of events to encourage our team to talk and promote the support available to them via our BHSF health membership, which is completely free for all staff. From our “Mindful Munch” lunch event to “Wear it Green Day”, we created an open atmosphere that everyone engaged with.
June: Winners of Best Customer Service at The Vendies Awards!
Shortly after this, Coinadrink was thrilled to win the prestigious Best Customer Service award at the 2024 Vendies Awards in London. This accolade celebrated our commitment to delivering exceptional service and consistently exceeding customer expectations through our vending and refreshment services. It also reflected our focus on quality and innovation, crediting our dedicated team for achieving this well-deserved recognition.
Meanwhile, Kieran Jones also scooped the Best Service Engineer award, whilst Samantha MacKirdy was highly commended in the Woman of the Year category!
June: A Smart Fridge photoshoot…
Coinadrink has always been committed to innovation, helping to propel not only our business forward but also the wider vending industry.
Our 62-year history has often seen us introduce new advancements, such as our bespoke Express Refreshments Micro Market and unique route planning software. This time, we spotted an opportunity to enhance the fresh food service we’ve been offering around the Midlands since 1978!
In June, we prepared to unveil our Smart Fridge solution with an impressive internal photoshoot. Scroll further down to learn more about its release.
June: Our Pride Party!
Towards the end of the month, we hosted our first-ever Pride party here at Coinadrink—a day dedicated to celebrating inclusivity. Our team did an excellent job creating a memorable event, with uplifting music, games, and plenty of tasty food. Based on the positive feedback, we’re pretty sure it won’t be our last Pride party!
July: Retaining our Investors in People Gold accreditation
The start of July continued June’s positivity as we were delighted to announce our reaccreditation with Investors in People Gold status!
As you’ve probably gathered, our staff are central to everything we do here, and we value them enormously. Retaining this prestigious accreditation followed all our employees completing the dedicated, anonymous survey. We were thrilled to learn how much everyone continues to enjoy being part of our team.
July: The launch of our Smart Fridge!
Later in the month, we unveiled our revolutionary Smart Fridge—a cutting-edge facility years in the making.
The Smart Fridge is designed to transform the fresh food vending experience, with capacity for snacks and cold drinks as well. Inspired by our Micro Market, it delivers a truly self-service solution. Users can browse a variety of products—from healthy salads and wraps to pasta pots and ready meals—before making their selection and paying cashlessly via the integrated screen.
It’s designed to be highly flexible, with easy installation options for a single fridge or up to four units. The housing can be customised to suit your brand, and users can enjoy ongoing offers and promotions tailored to shopping habits.
July: Yet another award added to our collection!
The month also saw us win the Enterprise of the Year award at the classy Nachural Awards, hosted at Wolverhampton Racecourse. Managing Director Tom Williams attended the ceremony after being nominated by one of our own customers, making the win all the more special.
Between our commitment to our team and our excellent customer service, it was another successful evening for the business.
July: More important accreditations successfully retained
It was certainly a summer to remember for Coinadrink! Towards the end of July, we received the good news that we’d retained accreditations for ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001—for quality, environmental, and health and safety, respectively.
From delivering a quality vending and refreshment service that uses the best equipment and products, to implementing practices that reduce our carbon footprint, we’re pleased to show we’re once again deserving of these three accolades.
September: Hosting our first Staff General Meeting in 5 years!
There was a high turnout from our staff as we discussed current performance and future goals at Walsall’s Village Hotel. We celebrated our many achievements since 2019 and raised awareness of areas for further improvement moving forward.
Coinadrink values transparency among our team, and this meeting was a fantastic opportunity to bring everyone together outside our typical working environment. It allowed us to celebrate success and remind everyone just how important they are to the company.
September: A trip down to London for the insightful “Lunch” trade show
Marketing Team Leader Alistair Ward accompanied Managing Director Tom Williams on a visit to the capital the following week. The Excel Centre hosted the grand “Lunch” trade show, where delegates showcased the latest developments in the ever-growing food-to-go industry. It was an insightful trip, highlighting products and technologies that could benefit our vending and refreshment services.
September: The extensive judging process for the Midlands Family Business Awards concludes
Back in March, Coinadrink entered the Midlands Family Business Awards for the first time in the Best Digital Tech Innovation and Family Business of the Year categories.
You can read about how we fared at October’s ceremony further down, but even the judging process impressed us deeply. In the summer, we attended PwC in Birmingham and MHR in Nottingham, two prestigious sites where panels were eager to learn about our business.
In September, filmmaker Richard Parkin visited our premises, capturing video content that was later shared at the event in October.
October: Winners of Best Digital Tech Innovation at the Midlands Family Business Awards
The grand ceremony took place at the start of October, hosted at Athena, Leicester. It was a bit of a rush for Marketing Team Leader Alistair Ward and Managing Director Tom Williams, who had attended a Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce exhibition in Edgbaston earlier that day, but the commute was well worth it!
We were thrilled to be the first winners of the evening, receiving the Best Digital Tech Innovation award. Later, we were highly commended in the Family Business of the Year category. The judges were clearly impressed by our efforts in technology and innovation. We even received a standing ovation as we collected our honour!
The Midlands Family Business Awards engaged with us in a way few other awards have in the past. It was a lovely evening with great people, great food, and a celebratory atmosphere.
November: Putting the emphasis back on our teams’ mental health
Later in November, we hosted another mental health awareness day, similar to the events earlier in the year. Managers made themselves available throughout the day for anyone who wanted a quick chat, while an uplifting atmosphere was created in our showroom with mindful music, tasty food, and motivational content.
November: Raising awareness of Endometriosis
November saw us raise awareness of Endometriosis, a largely undiagnosed health issue that impacts as many as 10% of women of reproductive age, equating to around 190 million women, girls, and AFAB individuals worldwide!
With two of our own team members suffering from the condition, we used the week to raise both awareness and funds for Endometriosis UK. Our two team members bravely shared their own stories with colleagues, and we also hosted a fabulous tea party where we shared lots of information and raised valuable funds.
November: Hosting our annual MacMillan Coffee Morning
The end of November marked the beginning of our festive fundraising activities leading up to Christmas. Our annual Macmillan Coffee Morning raised an impressive £138.15 for the charity, an excellent total that wasn’t far off our highest ever.
The team displayed their superb baking skills with a delectable array of cakes, including Tiramisu Cupcakes, Lemon Meringue, Biscoff Tray Bake, Polish Apple Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Sausage Rolls, and more!
December: A whole month of festive fundraising!
December has been a fun-filled month with great causes at its heart as we slowly wound down for a well-deserved Christmas break.
We hosted two exciting Christmas competitions across our Refreshment Shop and Express Refreshments divisions, following the conclusion of our Black Friday promotion, which saw nearly £400 donated to Express Refreshments customers’ chosen charities.
In addition to this, we raised valuable funds for St Giles Hospice and Save the Children UK. As in previous years, we also made a sizeable donation to our local Bloxwich and Blakenall Foodbank, contributing £500 worth of stock. This was further boosted by the generosity of our suppliers and our own staff members.
We didn’t forget our team amid the Christmas cheer! Our first-ever Coinadrink Christmas Advent Calendar saw one or two lucky team members win a present every working day in December. And on Thursday 19th December, we hosted a festive Christmas lunch featuring delicious turkey baps with all the trimmings.
All in all, it was a month of generosity and celebration, helping us reflect on the year while enjoying the festive spirit.
Saying goodbye to 2024…
As you can see, 2024 was another year of progress and achievement for Coinadrink, thanks to our incredible team. With award wins, recognition, numerous internal events, ongoing development, and charitable activities, our 62nd year has been one to remember.
We’d like to sign off by saying a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to our success—including our customers, suppliers, and all those we engaged with over the past 12 months.
We hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas and New Year. We’ll be back on Thursday 2nd January 2025 to do it all over again.
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