Cold drink vending machines

Most sites do better with a combo than with a drinks-only machine — the snacks subsidise the slow days and you only pay for one installation. We will tell you that up front rather than sell you two machines.

Where a drinks-only machine does make sense is high-volume single-purpose sites: gyms, sports clubs, factory floors in summer. There the cold-drink columns turn over fast enough to justify the whole cabinet.

All our machines run chilled, take card and tap, and report sales per product so you can see what is actually moving before you restock.

The South African summer is the cold-drink machine's whole business case: demand climbs exactly when nobody wants to queue at a tuck shop in the heat, and the machine sells without anyone leaving their station. Chilling is continuous, not an ice-box top-up.

What goes in the columns is up to the site: sodas and energy drinks where they sell, still and sparkling water where wellness policies lead, juices and flavoured milks for schools and hospitals. Cans, plastic bottles and some cartons all vend reliably; glass we advise against in most public sites, and we will say so rather than let a breakage teach the lesson.

If the site also wants snacks — and most do once the machine is in — the combo models carry both without a second footprint. That conversation is cheaper before installation than after, which is why our first question is always about the site rather than the machine.