MILAN – 2021 is a record year for La Marzocco. In fact, the historic Italian manufacturer of professional espresso machines – founded in 1927 by Giuseppe and Bruno Bambi and based in Scarperia, near Florence – is expected to close the year with revenue of over €210 million. And all that in spite of all the ongoing logistics problems hampering the supply of raw materials and components and container shortages slowing down deliveries in the international markets.
This result marks a 60% increase in sales compared to 2020, which was also a record-year despite the pandemic. It should be noted that La Marzocco was one of the few brands in the industry posting profits in 2020.
There is more: in order to cope with the surge in orders, La Marzocco hired 90 people in 2020, 120 people this year and 20 more positions are still open.
The company exports its coffee machines and grinders to over 100 countries, with partners and distributors in all continents.
These figures are more like those of a startup than like those of a traditional company.
This is thanks to the huge success obtained in the home coffee machine market, a segment that La Marzocco has already been targeting for years. In fact, La Marzocco manufactures and sells smaller espresso machines with the same features of bigger professional machines without sacrificing on specs and design because of the smaller form factor.
With these espresso machines, it is possible to replicate a barista experience at home or in the office. This is why La Marzocco’s domestic machines have become kind of iconic all over the world and sell well despite prices around €5,000.
Thanks to higher sales in the home segment, La Marzocco was able to navigate the crisis and, unlike most manufacturers, increase sales even in 2020.
In an interview with Italian leading financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, La Marzocco’s CEO Guido Bernardinelli takes stock of the situation in the espresso machine market, which is gradually getting back on track in the out-of-home segment.
“The recovery in the out-of-home market has surprised us by its strength and was beyond all our expectations making it difficult to meet orders,” says Bernardinelli.
These results were achieved on the international market, which makes 95% of the company’s turnover. Especially in countries like China, United States, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Thailand.
La Marzocco has sold 35,000 machines in 2021 (of which 15,000 in the home market segment).
“Because of this spike in sales, we had to increase our Italian workforce to 420 people (670 worldwide) and invest €16 million to boost our production capacity. At the same time, we are continuing to upgrade our machines with a new ‘intelligence’.
The IoT path is among our strategic priorities and we have already 13,000 machines connected. This is useful in order to collect data but especially for predictive maintenance.”
La Marzocco is also investing in coffee education and training through Accademia del Caffè Espresso, a multifunctional space, which aims to promote and disseminate the culture of quality coffee across multiple platforms, which is housed in the old factory of La Marzocco
Today the Accademia del Caffè Espresso is an open and shared space born for learning and exploration.
The space includes a museum, which that tells the story of over 90 years of history and technological innovation of the company, botany and origins of the coffee plant; laboratories, functional to research and training; a library; a historical archive and a professional kitchen.
“Our aim is to build a product experience that brings coffee knowledge, culture and education to a variety of target audiences,” concluded Bernardinelli.
