SUCCESS
STORY:
OPERATION
PROFILE
Sales from coffee service and cardboard recycling are helping Jennifer Skidmore plant a garden on J&J; property to grow food for charities.
a full partner in the new business —
J&J; Vending. They ran it out of their
home garage.
Now J&J; Vending resides in a
12,500 square-foot facility. The
operation serves businesses making
up to $40,000 in vending revenue in
the San Francisco Bay area.
Through the years, Skidmore
found it both a pleasure and struggle to
work with his father. Skidmore Senior
was resistant to new technology, like
the handhelds and vending management software the operation added
in 2003 in order to increase the cash
accountability and inventory control.
"When I was the young one and
worked with my father, he resisted
a lot of things," said Skidmore. "I
always said if I had a child working
here, I would never say no." Skidmore's declaration would be put to the
test in 2009 when his daughter started
working full time at J&J; Vending.
Skidmore senior retired in 2004.
He passed away in 2010. That year
Skidmore and his wife, Brenda, bought
the outstanding company portions and
become sole owners of the franchise.
Third generation expands business
Four years ago, after graduating college, Jennifer Skidmore was looking
for a job. Her father suggested she
work at J&J; on a temporary basis.
She agreed, but soon realized it was
40
Automatic Merchandiser
Ashley Karpan handles J&J;'s coffee customers including the operation's lobby single-cup
store where J&J; offers K-cups for direct pick up.
something she really enjoyed. "It's
fun," Jennifer said. "And I really
do enjoy working with my parents.
They're my best friends."
Almost immediately Jennifer
added an offce coffee service (OCS)
division to J&J.; She got the idea from
attending a NAMA show where coffee was featured as a sales growth
strategy during the recession. "It
seemed OCS was where the money
was," said Jennifer. J&J; has been successful using mostly drip brewers. It
doesn't have a private label, but offers
brand names and local coffees. "It's
kind of a trend to go local in this area,"
said Jennifer. The company offers
VendingMarketWatch.com
CONTINUED
April 2013
▶
J&J; Celebrates Its
Anniversary With
Makeovers
To celebrate its 35th year in
business, J&J; Vending is updating its logo, building a new
Website and moving to a new
building, which will include
a micro market on the top floor.
"Every week we plan to invite
a location to explore the
Company Kitchen," said Joel
Skidmore. He believes this
will help locations understand
what a micro market is and
increase business.