ST. LOUIS-During the recent Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the world's largest soft drink supplier put more than 800 Coinco coin changers to the ultimate challenge of making sure the vending machines worked flawlessly in dispensing product throughout the Olympic venue.

     "There is no room for error in a situation such as this," said Max Gerling, branch manager of Coinco Australia. "The Olympics is an intense short-term opportunity in which you experience high-volume, high traffic sales. Demands on the soft drink vendor and the vending equipment are enormous. The equipment had to work flawlessly.

     Six hundred and forty machines were set to accept Australian coins and were placed in the main Olympic Stadium and other public venues. The remaining 160 machines were in the Athletes Village and were set to accept a specially designed Olympic "free vend" token for use by athletes and Olympic staff. Coinco engineers were able to develop a changer that would validate a token, free-vend a product, and return the token to the user. This allowed the athletes to carry one, universal token that was reusable in all 160 machines in the village.

     The changer used in the vending machines was the Global II version of the Coinco Quantum four-tube model, a unit well known for its reliability over many years of service. "Considering the high volume of vends, the size and weight of the coins and the fact that our changers were running with a full inventory of coins, the Global II changer performed exceptionally well," said Gerling.

     "It's exciting for Coinco to be part of such a highly visible and unique world event," said Jim Douglass, vice president of marketing, Coin Acceptors, Inc. "The success of our equipment is a tribute to the efforts of all Coinco employees throughout the world, and an example of the support we provide to our vending partners."

     Coinco is a privately owned manufacturer of coin acceptors, coin changers, bill acceptors, control systems, and other components for the vending industry.