beginning to learn, but we did it." He
advises other operators who want to
stay in business to do the same thing.
"Invest in technology," he stressed.
"There will always be a return on
investment when it comes to technol-
ogy, so why not invest in something
that will get you more money?"
Here to stay
One of Holt's most recent investments
took a little convincing. When the
micro market segment was frst intro-
duced, Holt was hesitant. "I wasn't
sure I wanted to do it," he said. But as
he watched other operators place micro
markets, he realized that it was a seg-
ment that wasn't going away. And he
wouldn't be left behind. In 2013 the
company opened its frst Avanti Mar-
ket. Now LCV has grown to 14 micro
market locations. It is about to add a
second micro market route.
It didn't take long for Holt to see
the positives of micro markets, and
that includes the return on invest-
ment. "I've had some micro market
locations that are double the sales that
vending would be," he said. "A vend-
ing location will have its best sales in
its frst week, whereas micro market
sales will increase for a few months."
LCV has also been able to use the
commissary it purchased in 2004 to
offer fresh food to micro markets.
"With our commissary, we're able to
make anything and we're able to do it
in a timely manner," said Holt. Other
micro markets, he says, will have to
wait a few days to get fresh food, but
his company can make it and get it
out to the market within a day or two.
Today, LCV places Avenue C
micro markets and has been able to
grow year-by-year because of its micro
market and OCS segments.
Premium coffee
Part of Holt's job is to study the industry
and watch trends. Just as he recognized
that micro markets were becoming part
18 Automatic Merchandiser VendingMarketWatch.com March 2015
O P E R A T I O N P R O F I L E
Multiple business
interests
Dan Holt is a serial entrepre-
neur. In addition to his vending
company, Holt and his fam-
ily own fve restaurants in the
Fayetteville, TN area. "Our
ownership of restaurants came
out of our cafeteria business,"
said Holt. "We began with one
restaurant, did pretty well with
it so we bought another one and
so forth." Holt just signed a deal
to build three more restaurants.