Individual Pro of the Year, Jeff Whitacre
eff Whitacre, president and CEO
of Food Express headquartered in
Greensboro, NC, knows that to be a
"pro" in the industry, you must be
able to identify challenges and pro-
actively target them with innovation
and forward-thinking actions.
"The immediate challenges facing
the vending, coffee service, dining and
micro market industry center around
retooling existing assets and engaging
the consumer," said Whitacre. In order
to address these challenges, Whitacre
and his employees at Food Express have
been installing micro markets, retro-
ftting existing vending machines and
deploying new vending machines to
allow for wireless telemetry services,
cashless and contactless payment
options as well as offering healthy
product choices.
Whitacre, however, isn't solely
concerned with the success of his
business. Rather, he's interested in
seeing the entire industry thrive
and this interest helped him create
USConnect in 2013, a coalition of
independent vend operations that
is focused on industry technological
advances, consumer product offerings
and strategic supplier relationships. In
2014, Whitacre expanded USConnect
services and helped the organization
meet several milestones along the way.
In just a year and a half, the coali-
tion gained 42 affliate members,
who now serve 100 U.S. metropoli-
tan areas. More than 100,000 vend-
ing machines and 50,000 wirelessly
equipped vending machines, along
with 1,000 micro markets are con-
nected through the USConnect net-
work, which also produced revenues
of more than $500 million. USConnect
has partnered with other
industry companies
to offer its members
cashless and loy-
alty options and in
2014 it held several
technology seminars
aimed at educating
members with cur-
rent and future
o p e r a t i o n a l
challenges and
solutions.
J
First Annual
Pros to
Know
Over 100 professionals were nominated and 85 were chosen to be 2014 Pros to Know. Our overall winners,
Jeff Whitacre of USConnect and Food Express and the Cantaloupe Systems Team, exemplify the leadership
qualities that inspire and grow the industry. Following the overall winners are other industry members and
leaders selected due to their innovation and understanding of the vending, micro market or OCS segment
from an operator's perspective.
This award recognizes both individuals
and groups who help prepare companies,
organizations and the industry for the
signifcant challenges of today's business climate.
By Adrienne Zimmer, Assistant Editor
14 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com December 2014