How it works

"We can vend anything"

Our machines accommodate a vast range of products. Bring us a few samples of what you intend to sell and we will create a customised plan — the mechanism, the shelving, the spacing and the pricing all follow the product rather than the other way round.

You can rent or purchase the machine depending on the product and how long you need it. Activations are usually short-term rentals with our promoters on site; permanent installations are usually purchases.

We also brand machines with your chosen design, from a vinyl wrap on a standard combo through to a purpose-built cabinet.

A Richfield-branded vending machine installed beside a reception desk at a college campus

Three levels

How far do you want to go?

1 · Wrap a standard machine

Themed vinyl wrapping over a machine from our normal range. Fastest, cheapest, and enough for most brand and workplace requirements.

2 · Stock something unusual

Same cabinet, reconfigured internals. Shelving, spacing and the dispensing mechanism adjusted so the machine reliably vends your product rather than jamming on it.

3 · Build something new

Claw machines, gift and token-drop machines, lead-capture activations, one-off collector builds. Quoted per project.

Real builds

Machines we have actually made

Examples of customised, or one-of-a-kind, vending machines — all of them built and run by us.

  • A vending machine wrapped in Old Khaki branding, dispensing T-shirts at an activation

    Branded T-shirt machine

    Built and wrapped for Old Khaki, and run on the floor at the CTICC for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. Apparel behaves nothing like a chocolate bar on a coil — the mechanism was reconfigured for it.

  • A branded adidas claw machine with a Superstar campaign on its display

    Claw and gumball machines

    Fully branded claw machine and a themed gumball machine for an adidas internal corporate event.

  • An adidas-branded token-operated gift vending machine at the JD Sports Sandton store opening, stocked with sneakers and gift boxes

    Token-operated gift machine

    Built with adidas for the JD Sports Sandton store opening. Buy something in store, get a token, drop it in and it dispenses a custom gift box — one held a voucher for an iPhone. Tokens, not card or cash.

  • A Revlon Air lead-capture vending machine at a beauty expo, with brand promoters at a priority check-in desk and a free-sample machine beside them

    Lead-capture cosmetics machine

    A lipstick activation for Revlon where customers entered their details and the machine dispensed a free product in exchange.

  • A collector vending machine wrapped in anime artwork, stocked with character figurines, on a shopping mall concourse

    Anime merchandise collector machine

    A one-off collector machine built for a shopping mall.

  • A client beside a branded healthy-vending machine stocked with low-carb options

    Healthy vending, branded to the venue

    Premium biltong, droëwors, nuts and low-sugar drinks in a machine wrapped for judith fresh cafe at F45 Training Durbanville.

  • A standard combo vending machine vinyl-wrapped in dark green Heineken Beverages branding, stocked with snacks and cold drinks

    Vinyl-wrapped standard machines

    The most common request, and the cheapest: a standard combo machine wrapped in your design. Heineken, JET and others.

  • A vending machine reconfigured to dispense electronics and accessories

    Electronics vending

    A machine reconfigured to carry electronics rather than snacks, for a site that needed accessories on demand.

  • A pink custom-branded cosmetics vending machine stocked with beauty products

    Beauty brand launch machine

    A custom branded machine for a beauty brand launch that went viral — over 100,000 views on the client’s own social post, with a measurable spike in website traffic and sales.

Looking for something specific?

Machines like the ones you have seen elsewhere

People often arrive here having seen a particular machine — a Skubu unit, a smart locker, a touchscreen kiosk from overseas — and ask whether they can get one like it.

To be clear: we are not a Skubu supplier and we do not resell their machines. What we do is build custom vending machines to a brief, which in practice covers most of what people are asking for when they name a specific product — a branded cabinet, unusual stock, a touchscreen front, cashless-only payment, telemetry that reports sales per product.

If you have seen a machine you like, send us a photograph or a link. We will tell you honestly whether we can build the equivalent, what it would take, and when the answer is that you would be better off buying the original. Send us what you have seen →

Beyond snacks

A vending machine can sell almost anything

If it fits in a column and survives a drop, we can probably vend it. Bring us a few samples of the product and we will build the machine around it — shelving, spirals, sensors and pricing configured for what you actually sell.

  • Electronics

    Earphones, charging cables, power banks, adapters and phone accessories. The classic airport-and-campus line, and it holds its value in a cabinet.

  • Branded merchandise

    T-shirts, caps, bottles, notebooks and keyrings in your own branding — the machine we built for Old Khaki dispensed shirts at an activation.

  • Gifts and collectibles

    Gift boxes, plush toys, trading cards and blind boxes. Claw and gift machines sit here too, including the anime-merchandise machine we built for a mall.

  • Apparel basics

    Socks, swim caps, ponchos, gloves and beanies. Anywhere people arrive without the one thing they needed — gyms, pools, stadiums, hiking trailheads.

  • Personal care and essentials

    Hygiene products, wipes, sanitiser, plasters and toiletries. This is the range that makes a machine genuinely useful in a hospital or a residence.

  • PPE and workwear

    Gloves, earplugs, safety glasses, dust masks. On an industrial site a machine that issues PPE against a card is also a consumption record.

Age-restricted and regulated products are a separate conversation — an age-gated machine is buildable, but what may lawfully be sold unattended in South Africa is narrower than most people expect, and it is changing. Ask us before you plan around it.

Case studies

Activations in full

  • Old Khaki (Cape Union Mart Group)

    A fully branded T-shirt vending machine, concept to execution, on the floor at the CTICC for the 2026 Cape Town International Jazz Festival.

  • adidas

    A fully branded claw machine and a themed gumball machine, built for an adidas internal corporate event.

All case studies →

Questions

Questions about custom machines

Can you build a machine for a product that is not snacks or drinks?

Usually. Bring us a few samples of what you want to sell and we will work out a plan. We have built machines dispensing T-shirts, cosmetics, anime merchandise, electronics and gifts.

Can the machine be branded?

Yes — vinyl wrapping to your design on any machine in the range, or a purpose-built machine for an activation.

Do you supply machines for events?

Yes, including staffed activations with our own promoters. We have run activations at the CTICC for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, among others.

Can a machine capture customer details?

Yes — we have built activations where a customer enters their details and the machine dispenses a free product in exchange.

Tell us what you want to vend

Send us a photo or a sample of the product and roughly where the machine will stand. We'll tell you what's possible.