Vending machine company ME Group has seen its profit soar after installing record numbers of its “out of home” washing machines.
The Surrey-headquartered company increased its pre-tax profit by 10 per cent in the six months ending April 30, 2024, with revenue jumping 4.6 per cent in the same period.
The main contributor to this was the firm’s laundry division, which sells vending-machine style washing machines which can installed in locations including supermarkets, petrol stations and shopping centres.
The Wash.me arm of the company achieved a 17.4 per cent rise in revenue, installing a record 420 Revolution laundry machines in the first half, marking an 18 per cent increase year-on-year.
It said expansion through partnerships with supermarkets and petrol forecourts was continuing to drive growth, positioning the group to achieve a record number of installations in the 2024 financial year.
The group’s photo booth division, Photo.me, also grew, driven by global demand for official photo ID.
The 3,548 photo-booths previously acquired in Japan have now been fully integrated into the group’s Japanese operations and have started to bring in significant revenue.
This half’s strong results follow a record year for Me Group in 2023, when revenue increased by 12 per cent to £173m and pre-tax profit by 14 per cent to £61.8m.
Bosses attributed this to the installation of more photo booths and price increases, added that the number of transactions had stayed “stable” from year to year.
In total, the company has more than 43,800 machines – ranging from photo booths to children’s rides – are scattered across train stations, shopping centres and car parks across Europe and Japan, and are owned and maintained by the group itself.
Third-party site owners then receive a cut of the machine turnover, a fixed fee, or a combination of the two.