BELFORTE CHIENTI (Italy) Athletes, coaches, assistants, officials and journalists from around the world at the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, will drink coffee and cappuccino brewed with professional Made in Italy machines.
The Belforte Chienti company, Nuova Simonelli won the contract to supply coffee machines throughout the Olympic village and beyond. In the next few days a truck loaded with 147 coffee machines of various models, both traditional and superautomatic, will leave the Marche production facilities for Russia.
Some are for the Olympic facilities, both those that host athletes, journalists and staff, as well as those accessible to the public, such as eateries. Another part, however, is bound for a local chain of “coffee corners” which are found throughout the Krasnodar region, which overlooks the Black Sea, and includes the city of Sochi and the offices of the XXII Winter Olympic Games which run from 7 to 23 February 2014. Precisely because of the Games this local chain, which is one of the sponsors of the Olympics, decided to “redesign” its locales. The restyling also includes installing Nuova Simonelli coffee machines.
“Being chosen to be a supplier for the Olympic Village in Sochi is a prestigious result for our company” said CEO, Nando Ottavi, “but I consider it a success for the Made in Italy of which we are proud supporters, for the particularly advanced technology that we apply to our machines and for the innovative design of our products, which have all contributed to our doing business in 115 countries.”
For Nuova Simonelli, Russia is a booming market which in the last few years has reached a market share of over 10%. Moreover, as is already the case in many other markets, Nuova Simonelli exports not only machines and technology to Russia, but also coffee culture and training. In Moscow, in early October, the Italian company, in collaboration with Business Russia, held a course of basic training for baristas with operators in the HoReCa sector in all regions of the Federation. Among the teachers were English World Champion, Gwilym Davies and Irish champion Colin Harmon.
The supply of coffee machines to the Olympic facilities in Sochi is not a novelty for Nuova Simonelli at major international sporting events. At the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (Canada) in 2010, there were espresso coffee machines supplied by the Italian company and back in 1996 at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA), bar equipment made in the Belforte Chienti establishment was installed for the first time. Also, some years ago, for three consecutive events, a particular model of Nuova Simonelli coffee machine, the “Microbar”, which is now on display at the Calenzano Museum of Industrial Design (Florence) was installed during the Grand Prix in the paddock of a notable Japanese motorcycle team and for a season also in the paddock of an Italian Formula 1 team.
