Pepi Paves the Way for Added Customer Value and Emerging Payment
Trends
MALVERN, Pa. & DOTHAN Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
USA
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: USAT) ("USAT") and The
Pepi Companies ("Pepi") are pleased to announce the successful
completion of Pepi's transition to 100 percent cashless. Pepi, a food,
vending and coffee solutions business serving the states of Alabama,
Georgia and Florida, is believed to be the first full-service food and
beverage vending company that offers cashless on all its vending
equipment. Pepi utilizes USAT's market- leading ePort® cashless payment
technology and comprehensive ePort Connect® service for its vending
machine base.
Two years ago, Vic Pemberton, President and founder of The Pepi
Companies, and USAT began working on a plan to roll out a cashless
solution to Pepi's vending machine base over the course of a five-year
period. According to Pemberton, in light of outstanding customer
response to the machines already offering cashless, and Pemberton's
observations that his customers rarely carried cash, he made the
decision in early 2012 to accelerate that timetable, with a goal of
reaching 100 percent cashless for the remainder of his machine base by
the end of 2012.
"At Pepi, we don't believe cashless is an option in our business any
longer—it's a necessity," said Pemberton. "From a consumer perspective,
the younger generation just doesn't carry cash anymore and we need to
overcome that. The idea of any potential customer walking by our
machines and not being able to buy something is just bad business.
"In addition, technology's impact on our industry is moving at a fast
pace," added Pemberton. "Cashless can help offset volume declines
associated with price increases, customers can multi-vend and USAT's
Two-Tier Pricing Program provides additional flexibility from a cost
perspective. And, as I look toward the future, there have never been so
many opportunities brewing to strengthen customer relationships and
create new revenue sources. Moving to 100 percent cashless adoption was
just our first step.
"Our customers are increasingly asking for mobile payment capabilities,
prepaid, couponing and loyalty rewards programs," continued Pemberton.
"We believe that USAT, as our service partner, is best positioned to
offer all these through its ePort Connect service in a turnkey,
easy-to-implement and scalable way. We believe 100 percent cashless
gives us the necessary infrastructure to capture the incremental upside
now, while we pave the way for new opportunities in the future,"
concluded Pemberton.
Stephen P. Herbert, Chairman and CEO of USA Technologies, said, "We are
very proud to work with The Pepi Companies on this important milestone
in the food and beverage vending industry. We believe that their
innovation and leadership is enabling Pepi to harness the benefits of
connected machines, including cashless payments and telemetry data,
across their entire business, setting an example for the many
traditionally cash-based businesses looking to reinvigorate their
business models for today's consumers. We look forward to working with
Pepi on many of the expanded services USAT has underway."
For more information about USAT's cashless and M2M telemetry services,
contact USAT sales at 1-800-633-0340.
About The Pepi Companies:
The Pepi Companies, headquartered in Dothan, Alabama, with branches in
Bainbridge, Georgia, and Tallahassee, Florida, has been a leader in
vending and food services for nearly 27 years, and coffee and water
services for over 20 and 13 years, respectively. The company is a local
Canteen franchise employing 100 loyal and dedicated professionals who
deliver break room solutions, dining centers and catering and coffee and
water services to over 1,000 clients. To learn more, please visit www.pepifoods.com.
About USA Technologies:
USA Technologies is a leader of wireless, cashless payment and M2M
telemetry solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries.
ePort Connect® is the company's flagship service platform, a
PCI-compliant, end-to-end suite of cashless payment and telemetry
services specially tailored to fit the needs of the small ticket,
self-service retail industries. USA Technologies also provides a broad
line of cashless acceptance technologies including its NFC-ready ePort®
G8, ePort Mobile™ for customers on the go, and QuickConnect™, an API Web
service for developers. USA Technologies has been granted 84 patents;
and has agreements with Verizon, Visa, Elavon and major customers such
as Compass, Crane, AMI Entertainment and others. Visit the website at www.usatech.com.
USAT-G
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20121205005794/en/
USA Technologies
Veronica Rosa
VP Corp. Comm. & Investor
Relations
484-359-2138
vrosa@usatech.com
Source: USA Technologies and The Pepi Companies
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