From Johor Bahru to Bukit Panjang: Hiap Joo Bakery’s banana cakes sold via vending machine

SINGAPORE – There is no need to cross the Causeway anymore for the famously moist banana cakes from Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory in Johor Bahru.

Just head to Senja Hawker Centre in Bukit Panjang for your cake fix, with a touch of a button from a vending machine. 

Each box – priced at $8.60 – contains 10 pieces of banana cake. The chilled vending machine can hold 48 boxes at one time, and will be restocked twice a day at 11.30am and 4.30pm. For comparison, in JB, each box is priced at RM13, or about S$3.90.

Currently, the focus is on selling the iconic banana cake, says Ms Serene Ong, 41, the founder of Singaporean company Hypha Vending Retail, which supplies and operates the vending machines.

Since its launch on May 17, the vending machine has drawn long queues, with the cakes selling out within one hour. 

Ms Ong is no stranger to Hiap Joo Bakery as she has been in touch with it for many years to import its cakes for group-buy consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

She approached the owners in April, with the intention to resell the cakes via the vending machine. 

She does not rule out bringing in Hiap Joo Bakery’s other products in the future, and is also exploring more locations to set up these cake vending machines.

Her Hypha Vending Retail company is behind the

popular Butter Town bakery’s “shio pan ATM”

and Uncle Lee Confectionery cake machine. Both machines, which are located at Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre, sell out these products every day, she adds. 

She also has another Uncle Lee Confectionery dispenser at Bukit Batok West Hawker Centre, and a panna cotta vending machine at Buangkok Hawker Centre in Sengkang Grand Mall. The latter stocks panna cotta from Muslim-owned business Rohmini. 

While her current batch of vending machines are all located in hawker centres, Ms Ong is looking to expand into shopping centres and other communal spaces with high footfall. 

In the long run, she hopes to push out more unmanned machines vending products not just from local businesses, but “overseas delicacies” from countries such as Thailand and China too. 

She says: “The aim is to be the platform for small businesses to have a physical presence. I benchmark what to sell from my group-buy experience – people tell me about things they want to try and I will review to see if they are worth bringing in.”