Tech Industry Veteran Brings 25 Years Management Consulting and Operations Expertise to Leading Vending Industry Trade Group

July 5, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO ─Cantaloupe Systems announced that Sarah Rankin, the company’s president and chief operating officer, has been named to the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s (NAMA) board of directors. NAMA is the leading trade organization for the $20 billion U.S. vending industry with more than 2,000 members.

“NAMA is in the initial stages of an ambitious plan to expand the vending retail channel and create greater revenue opportunities for members through improved operational efficiencies, better merchandising and heightened consumer awareness of vending as an invaluable retail channel,” said Richard M. Geerdes, NCE 5, CCS, NAMA president and CEO. “Sarah brings a unique combination of operational and technology industry expertise, which NAMA needs now to execute on these aggressive growth plans.”

Rankin’s San Francisco-based firm, Cantaloupe Systems, is the leading provider of wireless-enabled monitoring, business intelligence and analytics technology and services to the $55 billion global vending industry. The company’s Cantaloupe Retail Optimization Platform (CROP)™ is widely recognized as the most complete and effective vending optimization platform in this fast-changing marketplace.

Prior to joining Cantaloupe in 2009, Rankin worked for a portfolio of venture capital-backed technology companies providing guidance and oversight on the integration of finance and business operations. Earlier in her career, Rankin was senior director, worldwide operations and engineering, for Maxtor Corp., a leading manufacturer of computer hard disk drives that was acquired by Seagate Technology in 2006. At Maxtor, Rankin managed all budgeting and financial activities and was responsible for logistical operations including supply chain management, inventory control and repair and recovery production operations.

Rankin has a B.A. degree from Mt. Holyoke College and an M.B.A. from Dartmouth College, Amos Tuck School of Business.

“The vending industry is going through a time of tremendous innovation and change – much of it technology-driven – as operators look for ways to boost profits and service and expand vending’s footprint in the retail marketplace in a challenging economic environment,” said Rankin. “I’m looking forward to helping NAMA grow its member base and raise awareness of vending as a convenient, innovative and dynamic retail channel.”

Rankin will serve a three-year term with NAMA effective July 1, 2011.

About NAMA
NAMA is the national trade association of the food and refreshment vending, coffee service and foodservice management industries including on-site, commissary, catering and mobile. Its membership comprises service companies, equipment manufacturers and suppliers of products and services to operating service companies. The basic mission of the association, to collectively advance and promote the automatic merchandising and coffee service industries, still guides NAMA today as it did in 1936, the year of the organization’s founding.  

About Cantaloupe Systems
San Francisco-based Cantaloupe Systems, Inc., is the fastest-growing, wireless-enabled vending solutions  provider. The company was founded in 2002 by engineers Mandeep Arora, a second-generation vending professional, and Anant Agrawal to provide automated merchandising and business intelligence technology to the $55 billion global vending industry. Installed in individual vending machines, the Cantaloupe Retail Optimization Platform (CROP)™ applies state of the art business intelligence and analytics to remotely-monitored real-time vending sales data to suggest optimized next-best-step business decisions. The result: vending operators know how to generate the greatest revenue and margin from each machine with optimized service efficiencies and the least operational cost. Operators using CROP and Seed® technologies average $35,000 in annual savings per route, can replenish 80 percent more machines per week and can reduce their carbon footprint by 40 percent through the elimination of unnecessary truck travel and smaller loads per truck.

Cantaloupe Systems is backed by Global Environment Fund of Chevy Chase, MD., and Foundation Capital of Menlo Park, CA.  For more information, please visit http://www.cantaloupesys.com.