UK Farm Uses Vending Machines to Sell MIlk
Nell's Dairy, in Kingham (UK) is using a remarkably simple method to sell their milk. Two milk vending machines have been installed in town, and consumers can fill up their glass bottles with the farm's fresh Guernsey milk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An extra perk is that one of the vending machines is inside a local pub. The Flemings, owners of Nell's Dairy, are quite happy with the results of their new means of distribution:
“We spotted one on holiday in Italy two years ago,” says Caroline. “We were sitting in a village square near Pisa, and there was this milk-vending machine outside a shop. People were filling up jugs and bottles even though the shop was shut. We thought it could be a great opportunity to sell our milk directly to the public without selling it through the horrible supermarkets. Oh, I’d better not say that.”
It is no secret that most dairy farmers have an ambivalent view of supermarkets. The milk industry, having spent the last two decades lurching from one disaster to another, hit a new low this summer. Threats of strikes, marches on Parliament and mud-slinging on an agricultural scale was only resolved after the processors signed a voluntary code of practice.
