A breakdown of all 1993 vending sales figures showed canned drinks tallied $10.3 billion (35.9%); bottled drinks added $2.2 billion (7.8%); while cup drinks rang up $2.1 billion (7.4%).
Compared to the prior year, the cold drink vending segment showed a 2% overall gain for 1993, while sales volume increased about $2 billion. Most of that gain was achieved by canned cold drinks, whose dollar volume was up by 20.1%.
Cold drink sales in venders were bolstered by a wave of new products, as the line between soft drinks and other beverages became blurred. The spread of multipricing capability in machines equipped with dollar bill validators enabled venders to handle a broader range of selections.
The number of canned cold drink machines in operation rose by 100,000 to 1,600,000. However, other types of equipment placements experienced declines, with bottle machines moving down by 30,000 to 750,000 venders; and cup machines dipping by 5,000 machines to 215,000. Hanna has strongly promoted canned beverages for the past 20 years.