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Summer heat keeps firm's owner busy
Ice cream, sugar-free snacks, conversation to go are part of J the V Vending's services 
DOUG CHILDERS Special Correspondent  
Published: August 21, 2006
As John Hannay Jr. knows from experience, the weather influences his customers' choices. On hot summer days, he said, he sells a lot of ice cream and Gatorade in the 90 vending machines he operates around Richmond. "I can't keep the Gatorade in the machines."
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Not surprisingly, bottled water sells well, too.

But the weather is fickle, and buying patterns can change as quickly as a cold front hitting town.

"A cool week in the summer means the snacks take off," Hannay said. "Heat affects everybody's appetite. When you see a cold week coming up, you order a bit more snacks."

As the owner of J the V Vending, Hannay knows a lot about customers' snack habits. It's knowledge he started accumulating as a teenager in the 1970s, when he spent his summers helping his father with his own business, Southern Vending.

After graduating from high school in 1978, Hannay went to work full time for his father's company. Then, in 2000, his father sold the company. That's how his company, J the V Vending, got started.

"It was a scary situation after 22 years" working with his father, Hannay said. Luckily, he had a company to approach: the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He had handled the newspaper's account with Southern Vending for seven or eight years, and based on its experience with him, the company agreed to be his first account with J the V Vending.

"I started out at the Richmond Times-Dispatch with 20 or 30 vending machines," Hannay said. "It was a huge investment. I had to scrape everything I had together. It was tough in the beginning."

Back in the early 1970s, vending machines were relatively simple - they weren't even run by electricity. Today, they're often refrigerated and contain computer circuitry. Drink machines cost about $4,000. Food machines cost up to $6,000.

It was a struggle initially, but Hannay said he kept reminding himself, "Keep on working and doing a good job, and you'll grow." The hard work paid off when word of his dedication reached a company that sells vending equipment and finds locations for them.

"They called me and got me some nice accounts in Richmond with The Jefferson Hotel, the Virginia Employment Commission and Overnite Transportation, which is now UPS Freight," Hannay said.

Today, Hannay operates vending machines in 10 companies' buildings. Continuing a family tradition, he often takes his 15-year-old son, Jimmy, along. And this summer, he hired his first full-time employee.

Having full-time help will make the daily rounds easier, Hannay said. Refilling the vending machines takes him about 60 hours a week, and he sometimes works seven days a week. "Some places I refill twice a week; some, it's three times a week. You don't want to get behind and have your machines empty."

He also personally fixes the vending machines when they break down. He has an average of two service calls a week.

Hannay doesn't mind the time he spends around his vending machines, though, because it gives him the opportunity to do what he considers vital to his business: talk to the customers.

"I put in the machines what the people want," he said. "People ask for stuff, and I write down what they want, and I order it. It's part of the reason I'm seeing success."

In response to requests, for example, he has added aspirins and healthy items, including sugar-free snacks for diabetics, to the vending machines in one client's lunch room.

Hannay extends the notion of customer service beyond simply keeping his vending machines filled with what his customers prefer. Three years ago, during Hurricane Isabel, he delivered 50 cases of water and food to The Times-Dispatch's Hanover County and downtown facilities for the employees who worked through the storm overnight.

In fact, Hannay takes customer service so seriously that it limits how large he'd like the company to grow. "I don't want to grow too much - maybe one or two more companies. There are too many headaches when you have too many trucks. I want to be hands-on because I like to talk to the customers. They trust what I'm going to do is the right thing. A lot of big vending companies don't care."

When he gets a new account, Hannay says he likes to tell the client "they're going from the Flintstones to the Jetsons."

Chuck Saxton, plant manager for Dean Foods' manufacturing facility in Richmond, has seen Hannay's attention to customer service up close. Hannay placed eight vending machines in the company's building a year ago, and Saxton has watched as Hannay kept the machines well-stocked with items that his employees request.

It's the personal touch that makes Hannay successful, Saxton said.

"Most successful entrepreneurs I've known understood their business thoroughly. And they're not scared of long hours. That describes John. He knows the business."

THE RESUME

Name: John Hannay Jr., owner of J the V Vending since 2000

Born: Nov. 2, 1960, in Richmond

Education: graduated from Douglas Freeman High School

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

MEMO: COVER STORY: SPOTLIGHT ON SMALL BUSINESS

Copyright (c) 2006 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.