Stephen Herbert can’t pinpoint the exact time when his company, USA Technologies (USAT) in Malvern, went from a development company to an operating company. That’s largely because for the last several years, USAT has quietly emerged to the forefront of the cashless payment revolution and vending market. It’s also the result of 69 approved patents and a confluence of technological and societal factors that garnered USAT the No. 6 spot in the country and 26th worldwide by The Nilson Report for Point-of-Sale Terminal Shipments in 2007.
“We held true to our vision and continued to push,” says Herbert, the President and COO who has been with the company since 1996. “Now we’re seeing the rewards.”
Using technology more than a decade in the making, the 17-year-old, 40-employee company is garnering national attention and partnering with global powerhouses like Starbucks, Pepsi, and Wal-Mart as a result of its expanding line of innovative products. They include the ePort cashless payment system, which number 50,000 and can be found in kiosks and unattended point-of-sale markets in every major city in the U.S. and now Canada. USAT’s other primary product line, EnergyMisers, significantly reduces the power consumption in more than 200,000 vending machines at major retailers and military bases worldwide.
Herbert points to numerous studies that show consumers prefer to use credit or debit cards for purchases and the emergence of reliable and affordable wireless technology as factors that have opened up the floodgates for companies seeking more efficient ways of doing transactions.
USAT is also dabbling in other markets, like amusements, having partnered with Bensalem-based Merit Entertainment to install cashless payment for 250,000 tabletop gaming systems in high-end nightspots. Herbert cites USAT’s mission, “value through innovation,” as the driver for its continued growth.
“Our customers and operators of these locations are seeing increases in revenue because of the convenience and utilities savings and they also get operational data,” Herbert says. “It’s a whole new paradigm.”
Source: Stephen Herbert, USA Technologies
Writer: Joe Petrucci
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