diff --git a/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java b/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
index ee14d8968c9e3..703d9fb787979 100644
--- a/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
+++ b/extensions/kubernetes-client/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/kubernetes/client/deployment/KubernetesClientProcessor.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.CombinedIndexBuildItem;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.ExtensionSslNativeSupportBuildItem;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.FeatureBuildItem;
+import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.RemovedResourceBuildItem;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.nativeimage.ReflectiveClassBuildItem;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.nativeimage.ReflectiveHierarchyBuildItem;
 import io.quarkus.deployment.builditem.nativeimage.RuntimeReinitializedClassBuildItem;
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@
 import io.quarkus.kubernetes.client.runtime.KubernetesClientProducer;
 import io.quarkus.kubernetes.client.runtime.KubernetesConfigProducer;
 import io.quarkus.kubernetes.spi.KubernetesRoleBindingBuildItem;
+import io.quarkus.maven.dependency.ArtifactKey;
 
 public class KubernetesClientProcessor {
 
@@ -88,6 +90,13 @@ public void nativeImageSupport(BuildProducer<RuntimeReinitializedClassBuildItem>
                 .produce(new RuntimeReinitializedClassBuildItem(io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.utils.Utils.class.getName()));
     }
 
+    @BuildStep
+    RemovedResourceBuildItem unregisterVertHttpClient() {
+        // Exclude VertxHttpClientFactory in favour of QuarkusHttpClientFactory
+        return new RemovedResourceBuildItem(ArtifactKey.fromString("io.fabric8:kubernetes-httpclient-vertx"),
+                Collections.singleton("META-INF/services/io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.http.HttpClient$Factory"));
+    }
+
     @BuildStep
     public void process(ApplicationIndexBuildItem applicationIndex, CombinedIndexBuildItem combinedIndexBuildItem,
             KubernetesClientBuildConfig kubernetesClientConfig,
diff --git a/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.http.HttpClient$Factory b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.http.HttpClient$Factory
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..9ea453154b742
--- /dev/null
+++ b/extensions/kubernetes-client/runtime-internal/src/main/resources/META-INF/services/io.fabric8.kubernetes.client.http.HttpClient$Factory
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+io.quarkus.kubernetes.client.runtime.QuarkusHttpClientFactory
\ No newline at end of file