Magosky and her husband Brad Magosky, who manages professional sailboat racing teams, are among the first South Florida franchisees for Culver City, Calif.-based HUMAN (Helping Unite Mankind and Nutrition), which offers vending machines with snacks and drinks free of high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial sweeteners and artificial colorings. Its first contract is delivering eight machines to Fort Lauderdale’s Holy Cross Hospital.

“This is a huge trend and it’s not just the upper echelon of people eating at Whole Foods. It’s the general population,” said Shani Magosky, who also runs a consulting and executive coaching business. “As an investor I saw this as an opportunity because the big vending companies are locked in with Coke and Pepsi and the big snack companies.”

Holy Cross wanted to put healthy food in its vending machines because it felt it was a contradiction for the health care provider to encourage patients to buy junk food, she said. Later, Holy Cross will put the machines in its other facilities, such as the urgent care center and its women’s center, she said. Magosky worked with the hospital’s food vender Sodexo to deliver the machines and she hopes to do more business with Sodexo, which has its hospital food services division based in Boca Raton.

Magosky’s machines will include pop chips, pita chips and Latin-themed snacks like plantain chips and spicy jalapeño flavors. Instead of the traditional sodas, it will offer drinks like natural Blue Sky soda, protein shakes, coconut water and natural fruit juices for kids.

“The prices are slightly higher because it’s more expensive to make and source healthy products,” Magosky said. “We have a higher cost infrastructure than a company with thousands of machines deployed, but it’s very competitive with any convenient food option like a 7-Eleven.”

Prices range from $1 for water to $1.25 for health bars or colas to $3 for protein shakes.

The machines take credit cards. Some will have a touch screen so users can see the nutritional information of the products.

All of the machines are monitored in real time by a program that allows both the owner and the landlord to track sales. Magosky said this lets her know when the machines must be restocked while giving the landlord confidence that it’s getting its fair share of the sales commissions.

In addition to vending machines, HUMAN can set up micro markets in larger workplaces with fresh products like sandwiches and salads. This would include coolers with a variety of beverages and walls of snacks that are self serve. It’s an “honor system” but the micro markets are usually monitored by video, since people usually won’t risk their jobs over a free sandwich, Magosky said.

“It’s an amazing employee benefit to bring in healthy snacks,” Magosky said. “What it costs them is the space and it’s really not that much room.”

Magosky said she spent a little over $100,000 getting the franchise started. There is another HUMAN franchise in west Broward County and one in Miami-Dade County.

HUMAN CEO Sean Kelly said the franchise fee is $35,000 and most franchisees spend at least $30,000 on equipment, such as more machines and the products. Founded in 2008, the company has 130 franchises but he admits the South Florida market has been hard to crack because many of the big vending machine companies have long-term contracts here.

“Decision makers in South Florida for some reason haven’t been as quick to change from traditional junk food vending to healthier vending,” Kelly said.

He hopes that new USDA guidelines on healthy vending food requirements for schools that receive federal school lunch funding will encourage school districts to choose his machines.

“We’re in over 500 schools nationwide and that number will probably double in the next year or two as a result of new USDA guidelines,” Kelly said.

Most franchisees take markets covering about 100,000 people but that varies by the type of businesses in the area, Kelly said. HUMAN is also targeting health clubs, YMCAs and colleges so being near them, as well as corporate centers, helps a franchise grow, he said.

Most franchisees recover their initial investment in two or three years, Kelly said.

“Eighty percent of our franchisees are part time and they grow into full-time roles as the business expands,” Kelly said.

BY WWW.BIZJOURNALS.COM