In the picture (left to right): Franco Panno, CEO of Gruppo Cimbali, Maurizio Cimbali, President of Gruppo Cimbali and Jason Prefontaine, Founder and CEO of Slayer.
NEW YORK, U.S. – Slayer, the game-changing American espresso machine company, and Gruppo Cimbali, one of Italy’s leading espresso machine manufacturers, announces a new partnership enabling both companies to work together to achieve global expansion.
The partnership creates a perfect blend of the established and lean manufacturing of Gruppo Cimbali with the subversive and innovative methodology of Slayer.
The partnership will enable Slayer to increase its presence in the international market by utilizing Gruppo Cimbali’s capabilities to streamline the manufacturing process, broaden engineering expertise, and expand our global business operations and brand footprint.
In return, Gruppo Cimbali will further expand its portfolio in the high-end espresso segment and cement its position as a key player in the U.S. market through a presence in Seattle, one of the world’s coffee epicenters.
“This partnership is very beneficial to Slayer in more than just the most obvious route. With the ability to tap into Cimbali’s engineering expertise, technology and lean manufacturing skill sets, Slayer can now properly amplify production efforts. This detail has been the current, defining need of Slayer and honestly provides us with the strength and muscle power to accomplish and even exceed our goals,” said Jason Prefontaine, Founder and CEO of Slayer.
Gruppo Cimbali has acquired a controlling financial stake in Slayer as an investment with no plans to alter the company’s operations or methodologies. Slayer will continue to operate independently, maintaining its core principles with the full company operating autonomously under Founder and CEO Jason Prefontaine. Slayer will proceed with its mission to ‘make coffee better’, through innovation and design, which made the company an alluring partner to Gruppo Cimbali.
“The partnership with Slayer,” Franco Panno, CEO of Gruppo Cimbali explained, “is part of our expansion plans and strengthens the Group’s position in the specialty coffee market, a coffee consumption trend on the rise globally and recently increasing in popularity in Italy too.”
Since 2007, Slayer has revolutionized the espresso machine industry, creating machines that offer unparalleled design matched only by the flavor of the espresso. Slayer machines utilize a patented flow rate control and flavor profiling process creating bold, impactful espresso, unlike competitor machines.
About Slayer
Slayer Espresso has been handcrafting machines in Seattle, Washington for the past decade, setting high standards to advance the specialty coffee industry with professional espresso machinery. Slayer is fundamentally connected to modern design for the guest and professional barista, exceptional user interface, and the development of technically efficient engineering with one ongoing mission, to make coffee better.
Slayer is the recipient of “Best New Product “awards from the Specialty Coffee Association of America (Slayer Espresso Single Group) and World of Coffee (Slayer Steam). We are an official SCAA member with deep roots in coffee and continued efforts toward the advancement of our industry. To learn more about our products, upcoming events, our community and the next wave of coffee visit www.slayerespresso.com
About Gruppo Cimbali
Through the LaCimbali and FAEMA brands, Gruppo Cimbali is a symbol of Made in Italy excellence and one of the global ambassadors of espresso culture.
The Group offers the widest range of HoReCa solutions on the market, consisting of traditional machines (for which it is world leader), super-automatic machines, grinders and accessories that combine reliability, high performance and ease of use to create outstanding coffee.
Gruppo Cimbali has three production plants in Italy (Binasco – Milan, Ghisalba – Bergamo and Cappella Cantone – Cremona) and nine operating branches, including seven abroad (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, USA and China), and is widespread throughout Italy and the world thanks to 700 distributors that are also responsible for providing pre-and post-sales technical assistance.
The Group’s crown jewel is MUMAC – the Espresso Machine Museum. Opened in 2012 to testify to the company’s important role in the history of the sector and its gratitude towards the local area, MUMAC is a unique place that recounts – through the largest exhibition of professional espresso machines in the world – 100 years of history, technology, design and Italian style, as well as offering a space for training and promoting espresso culture among coffee lovers, the training world and all those who are interested in deepening their knowledge about one of the products that symbolizes the Italian spirit.
