Gumball Depot Sustains Growth With New Bulk Vending Products OK Reboot

SALT LAKE CITY -- July marks the two-year anniversary of the management and name change that turned OK Manufacturing into Gumball Depot. How are things going for the iconic bulk vending company with the new name as it enters its third year? Very well, according to management.

Gumball Depot was established by former OK Manufacturing employees Bob Olson, Jerry Duke and Steve Halliday. OK had begun making machines in Salt Lake City in 1992. The OK restart continues its tradition of American-made equipment while following a strategy that includes regular releases of new models, alternating with re-launching and re-theming established industry favorites.

"We're doing really well," Halliday told Vending Times. "We're coming out with some new cranes and bulk venders, and we're also reintroducing Tractor Time and Gravity Hill."

Halliday pointed out that the company has brought out new equipment under the "OK" brand since the acquisition and reorganization. These machines include not only the Treasure Cove skill crane, but also bulk venders such as the Rattler and a football-theme design. He reported that the football vender, which stands 48" high with a 20" base, features a football-shaped globe that holds about 500 items (in 2" capsules). It incorporates a kinetic "zig-zag" delivery chute, and has become particularly popular.

THE GANG'S ALL HERE!Gumball Depot's staff poses for a group portrait outside the company's Salt Lake City headquarters. Pictured, from left, are Travis Nichole, Paul Pickering, Jaime McDonald, Tanner Garland, Colten McDonald, Steve and Brady Halliday, Kristall Jolley and Bob Olson.

These innovations reinforce the company's well-established line of successful games. OK was among the first to offer spiral bulk venders, and still produces a full line of spirals including the legendary Road Runner and Armadillo models. Once considered a "novelty" or even a fad, spirals have grown into a common equipment option for many coin machine operators.

PHOTOS:The football bulk vending machine (l.) from Gumball Depot features a specially molded globe that can hold as many as 500 vendable units. Designed for 1" gum or capsules, Gumball Depot's Rattler (r.) continues to generate solid sales. A variation of the spiral vending machine, its "zig-zag" delivery system offers a unique vend experience. Rattler has a 16" globe and stands 45" tall on a 15" base. Gumball Depot makes about two dozen vending machine models.

"Tractor Time has always been a great machine," Halliday said. "It's well built, and it allows operators to mix and match a lot of different types of product. A lot of guys used it to vend their excess products. It does extremely well in movie theaters, malls, bowling centers and FECs."

Another familiar game returning to the Gumball Depot lineup is Gravity Hill. A kinetic vender with vend action loosely resembling pachinko, Gravity Hill will be reintroduced with a new playfield that re-themes it. Halliday noted that the game fits into the same types of high-traffic locations suitable for Tractor Time.

Gumball Depot has also kept up its effort to win corporate accounts through a customization program, which OK began more than a decade ago. "We're still customizing for operators, as well as marketing firms," Halliday reported. "We just did a custom shipment for a large casual dining chain and we customized machines for a marketing company promoting a candy. The more we customize machines, the more requests we get."

Custom work involves matching machines to location decor, using logos and other graphics. It can also require adapting machines with specialized dispensing mechanisms that can vend unconventional product sizes.

Like the spiral bulk venders that brought OK to prominence in the 1990s, its successor company has continued to evolve and thrive to become a mainstay of the bulk vending industry. Information on Gumball Depot equipment and products may be found online at gumball-depot.com or by calling (800) 748-5480.