The aroma of a marquee Italian coffee brand will soon waft across malls, cafes and shops in Asia. Two established household brands from Asia and Europe are joining hands to take the best of Italy to this region.
OWL Beverage Specialist (OBS), a subsidiary of well-known local coffee brand OWL International, has been appointed the sole distributor of Caffè Cagliari products in Asia.
The Italian heritage coffee brand, which has been around for more than a century, also intends to make Singapore its regional distribution hub. More than 15 distributors stretching from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong to Brunei, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia, will be in Singapore to witness the momentous occasion.
The distributorship with OBS will see Caffè Cagliari’s full range of products made available here. This ranges from staples such as whole beans and coffee grounds to more recent products like capsule coffees and machines.
Complementary products such as biscuits, coffee drinks, coffee sweets, and sorbet will also not be left out. To top it off, OBS will introduce Singapore’s first Cagliari Café franchise.
With over 100 years of history, Caffè Cagliari’s expertise includes the art of coffee selection, roasting and blending. The brand was founded at the turn of the 20th century by Ambrogio Cagliari, who learned the craft in Brazil and brought his knowledge back to Modena in northern Italy.
The multinational company started as a humble coffee shop and has since extended its presence across Europe in countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Caffè Cagliari has also made headway into the US and Canadian market and now, it has arrived in Asia.
The OBS portfolio is the professional arm of OWL International and includes the brand’s OWL Café F&B chain, OWL single-serve capsule system and newly-appointed Caffè Cagliari distributorship.
Said Richmond Te, Group Assistant General Manager of OWL International, “Caffè Cagliari has a long history in their home country and their business is rooted in preserving and educating others about their coffee culture.
We are delighted to partner a company with similar goals to ours. OWL International and OBS strive to be market frontrunners while being curators of Singapore’s unique Straits Asian Kopitiam Culture.”
In line with their aims in coffee education, Caffè Cagliari operates a coffee training centre, the Scuola del Caffè Cagliari, in Italy. The training centre provides a platform for bar professionals to improve and update their skills, as well as to exchange both practical and theoretical information.
To preserve and showcase Italian coffee heritage, the company also operates the Caffè Cagliari Collection Museum – one of the world’s largest museums of Italian Espresso coffee machines. The museum is open to both the public and organisations, and houses more than 100 machines of great historical and stylistic value.
The collection ranges from the first steam-powered, column-shaped machines of the early 1900s, to the manual level machines of the post-war period, and up to the first continual flow models of the 60s.
Caffè Cagliari is a member of Istituto Nazionale Espresso Italiano (INEI), and holds INEI certification for its Superoro, Espresso Bar, and Bottega del Caffè blends. INEI is the governing body of the world-famous Espresso Italiano certification mark, one of the most famous and most copied ‘Made in Italy’ symbols.
