Vending, an ancient but modern industry

Whilst vending was created long ago, its real development only started after World War II...

Turning the pages of the vending history book pretty much takes you on a trip across the world.  The first machine appeared in Egypt in 215 B.C., invented by a Greek mathematician, Hero. It was a sacrificial water dispenser, that was activated by a 4-drachma coin.  Coffee was first cultivated in Ethiopia as early as in the 7^th century.  A coin-operated pencil vendor was produced in China in the 11^th century.  All the elements were there for vending to take off.  But it took a few more centuries…

Introduced in the 17^th Century in Europe and the USA by the Dutch, coffee has, over time, become the most popular drink worldwide, with a consumption of about a third of tap water in Europe and the USA.

In the same century, coin-operated, tobacco boxes (honour boxes) appeared in English pubs, as ancestors to the cigarette vending machines.

In the 17^th and 18^th century, a number of patents were granted in the UK and the US for stamp machines, gum machines and coin-operated dispensers.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, there were numerous innovations:

Vending Associations were set up as the industry developed on both sides of the Atlantic. NAMA was founded in 1936, the Automatic Vending Association of Britain (AVAB, now called AVA) in the early 30s, and the European Federation of Vending Associations (EFVA) in 1976, which then became the European Vending Association in 1994.

In 2005, the NAMA and the EVA launched the Worldwide Vending Association in AVEX and one year later the WVA Statutes were registered and published in Belgium.