in Small Business
Issue No. 2 - September/October 2001
Austway's respectable rise
When next you buy a cold drink from a machine on a hot day, chances are you will do business with Andrew Phillips.
Andrew is the principal of Austway, a rapidly growing firm handling food and drink vending machines throughout SA and a little bit beyond.
Austway's core business is the sale and distribution of vending machines to a network of independent distributors. Extended services include helping distributors to find appropriate sites for their machines in commercial premises with a healthy flow of custom.
The typical Austway distributor is a person with flexible hours and lazy lump of capital. In return for some routine maintenance, their distribution empire can flourish while they do other things. Many of Andrew’s long-time distributors are police officers.
The moonlighting pays off for distributors “if the real estate works for them” and particularly if they hook in to Austway's web-based database management system for inventory and accounting purposes.
Cooperation with large institutions through their networks of sites is a crucial factor. Andrew has negotiated an arrangement with the Australian Red Cross for placing machines and in return, distributors return a dividend to Red Cross as a charitable donation to Red Cross youth health initiatives.
Another key is presentable new machinery. Austway is an esoteric importer; Andrew sought out just the range of machines he wanted —made in Idaho Falls, USA — ...
