When Irish egg producer Tom O'Brien bought an Eggspress vending machine, he hoped to sell a few eggs direct instead of through wholesalers. He set it up at the gate to his farm and did a leaflet drop in the local area. Within a few weeks, he had greatly boosted sales, while at the same time simplifying his egg sales business.
"I soon was selling 60 dozen a day, 7 days a week and at a 100 percent margin over the wholesale price I had been getting," says O'Brien. "It's great to sell my eggs direct to the customers with no credit and no stores to service."
Eggspress is the creation of Paddy Muckian, a second generation, Irish egg producer. Muckian worked on the design for five years before putting it to use in his own egg operation.
Eggspress is an insulated, refrigerated vending machine with 28 drawers. When a customer puts his money in, a drawer opens and the customer takes his eggs. Each drawer is 12 by 12 in. and holds trays of up to 2 1/2 dozen eggs. Produce can also be placed in the trays.
"It can be located wherever there's a market for your eggs, fruit or other products -- at farm gates, farmers markets or even filling stations," says Muckian.
The machine not only handles customer sales as it empties, it notifies its owner. "You can set it so when stock levels drop to a certain point, it'll send a text message to your phone," says Muckian.
Muckian uses 2 1/2 dozen egg trays to sell his eggs. He says they have become associated with his farm, and customers like them. They return the empty container when they buy their next tray of eggs.
Since introducing Eggspress on his own operation, Muckian has sold it to other Irish egg producers like O'Brien, as well as to egg producers in England and Finland. He is interested in selling units direct to producers in North America as well. However, he also isn't done adding them to his own farm.
"I have one beside my farm gate and will have to add two more beside it to keep up with demand for the eggs," he told FARM SHOW.
As outfitted for European use, it uses 220V power. "It can also run on solar power," notes Muckian.