Now, the space-age chip you can eat...

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 20

Now, the space-age chip you can eat...

By

DIANA DEKKER,

in London “What more appropriate in the age of the silicone chip than a space-age vending machine, or even, a space-age chip vending machine. “We have reached the Twenty-first Century,” as the man on the London news observed, announcing the new product during the breakfast-time broadcast. The. chips are not of the computer variety. They are of the potato kind, and the machine from which they are dispensed is the brainchild of a New Zealand company which has launched them on to the English market. The subdued and elegant atmosphere of the penthouse at New Zealand House was an unlikely setting for the bright orange and white

automatic chip machines to be shown by Krisper Vending. Machines, Ltd and the managing director, Mr Jack Lane, of New Zealand. “Taste the quality of these succulent chips,” said the entrepreneur who hopes to market the machines in Britain. "The popular dream of piping hot, freshly deep-fried chips has now come true,” he said. Mr Lane demonstrated how the machine produced a piping-hot cup of potato chips in just 60 seconds. No matter that with first-day nerves he failed to close the door and the chips failed as a result to stop cooking at the stated 60 seconds and came out rather browner than expected. With the launch on to the

British market, the Krisper machine has now been introduced on five continents, including Japan, the United States, Australia, Spain and South Africa. An earlier model has, for some time, been working in New Zealand.

Mr Lane has spent the last 20 months preparing for the launch of the Krisper machine on to the English market.

He hopes to see it at London's laundrettes, garages, stations, sports centres, discos, arcades and shopping centres.

“In fact, just about anywhere,” he said.

Mr Lane is responsible for marketing the machine, which was invented by three of his colleagues. “We found a need and we filled it. That is marketing,” he said.