Ms O’Keeffe has used a speech in parliament to call on Public and Active Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams to overrule a recent vending machine agreement between V/Line and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
Ms O’Keeffe said the agreement would have a significant impact on a local business that had been servicing the area for more than two decades.
She asked Ms Williams to cancel the contract, as it would result in a loss of business for Goulburn Valley Vending Service owner Greg Coghlan.
Ms O’Keeffe said Mr Coghlan, who has managed the snack and beverage machines at two regional V/Line sites, including Shepparton Railway Station, had been told to remove his vending machines.
Mr Coghlan said he wasn’t given an opportunity to contest a procurement or tender process; he was just told to go.
“The only process I got was ‘see you later, take your machines out’,” he said.
Mr Coghlan said despite being a small business compared to the multinational Coca-Cola, the service he provided to the railway station could not be matched by his huge rival.
“We’re less than a kilometre from it. They ring up if there’s an issue. It takes me two minutes and I’m there,” he said.
“We’re Johnny-on-the-spot, and we have a wider range of products.”
Mr Coghlan’s business employs two full-time staff members and one casual in addition to himself, supplying sites from Wangaratta to Nathalia, Shepparton and Yarrawonga-Mulwala.
“Greg and his team have been a part of our local economy, providing a reliable service for 25 years and employing local staff,” Ms O’Keeffe said.
“Greg was not even given an opportunity to provide a proposal. This is a classic example of the Allan Labor Government neglecting Victorian small local businesses.”
The News put questions to Ms Williams, including why the government wasn’t backing local businesses over multinationals, especially given the difficulty they’ve overcome in recent years?
That wasn’t answered.
A V/Line spokesperson did confirm, however, that it had made “an agreement with a single vending machine operator to provide improved access to food and drink machines at stations across the regional network, including at Shepparton Station”.
“This agreement will ensure consistency and expand our food and drink options across the regional network,” the spokesperson said.
“We have been in contact with the business owner of the machines currently operating at Shepparton Station to support them through this transition period.”
V/Line also said it had followed government procurement processes while undertaking a selective tender process for a new vending machine operator and that Coca-Cola Europacific Partners was the successful tenderer and awarded the contract.
“We survived through COVID and all those sorts of things and have provided the best service that we were allowed to do,” Mr Coghlan said.
“Obviously, everything that we do was impacted, but we survived, and we hung in there and came out the other side — and we’re still there.”
