How many flower vending machines are there under your operation?

We operate three vending machines at the International Airport of Budapest.Two Smart Steps and one Easy Step. They're `free standing ` right at the meeting point in both terminals.

What is your experience about selling flowers from these machines at the Airport?How many bouquets do you sell roughly per week?

First of all it`s a small airport , there are about 5,5 million passengers per year.The highest season is in the summer (60%) then Xmas (20%of traffic ) The Smart Step is there for almost two years now.We sell about 6-8 bouquets per day at weekdays and 10-15 per day at weekends. In the beginning we had the First Step in the other terminal which we changed to the Easy Step about half year ago.Surprisingly Easy Step can sell almost the same amount of bunches as the Smart Step in BQs and certainly it`s a lot easier to refill it for `cos we don't have to make bouquets.

Where did your customers place the flower veding machines?

Our other machines have been placed at hospitals,shopping malls,supermarkets ,petrol stations.One of them has been built into a flowershop and mostly used after the shop closed.

What is your figuers about making use of the flower vending machines profitable?

Accroding to our clients and us if you manage to place the vending machines to a locations where you can sell 8 bouquets and more.. every day and able to make at least 5 eur profit on each bouquet it must be profitable and should payback the price of machine within 14-16 months.I know it's quite complex as well.So ,we calculated with 400 eur retal-fee/ month.( needs 1 squaremeter) If you can't sell more than 6 per day you must think it over wheter it'd be better to find another location for the machines. See our Calculation chart.

How long will the flowers last in the machines?

Well, it depends what sort of flowers you put into the bouquets.We like to use Alstromerias,Chrysantemums,Gerberas but certainly we put Rose bouquets as well with many other `funny` materials and lot of greens. I`d say the flowers in general should last one week without any problem.So, they look fresh. We put rose Bunches and Orchids, Alstromerias in the Easy Step.

How can I set the price?

The price can be set on each level differently which makes it possible to offer different assortment for everyone.

How is it possible to commnunicate with flower vending machines via GSM system?

Each machine has a number which you can ring shortly afterwards it will send you infos about number of sold flowers , how much money is in cash box and anything you'd like to know in sms format. In case of failure or other security problems the GSM is able to send you message automatically and can function as an alarm system as well.