MILAN – «The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a change in habits, still visible today, which has shifted coffee consumption away from the bar and towards the home”. And the data seem to confirm the words of Andrea Doglioni Majer, president of Ucimac, the federated association Assofoodtec/Anima Confindustria that represents manufacturers of espresso coffee machines and Horeca equipment. “If, on the one hand,” Doglioni Majer continues, “sales of professional machines have not increased compared to 2019, this year we have certainly increased the distribution of equipment aimed at the domestic market. The forecasts of the Anima Studies Office for 2021 estimate a recovery of the sector, unfortunately not yet sufficient to recover the losses suffered during 2020 due to the continuous closures of hotels, bars and restaurants».
Ucimac, data analisys: one of the industries most affected by the pandemic was, in fact, out-of-home consumption
«As Ucimac, representing coffee machines manufacturers, we are at the heart of the out-of-home consumption equipment. After a disastrous 2020, which marked -23% compared to 2019 for the entire sector, we are therefore focusing on products that can be used at home, where we are seeing more interest».
This theme was taken up again on 25 October during the event at HostMilano “The new normal of the coffee industry“, organised by Ucimac in the Food-Technology Lounge Anima.
Michele Cannone, Lavazza Global Brand Director Away from Home and speaker at the event on 25 October, expresses the point of view of coffee producers
«Our sector is going through a transition period related to the covid: the coffee market is evolving, especially from the consumer’s point of view. Now it is necessary to read how the pandemic has changed habits, with an impact also on professional machine manufacturers».
«For the coffee industry in general,” says Ucimac President Andrea Doglioni Majer, “there is a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ determined by the coronavirus. From my point of view, the trends that already existed in the market have been accelerated. It is now necessary to share a new vision of the market, both with players from neighbouring industries – such as roasting – and with foreign coffee machine manufacturers. Today, socio-economic sectors have been created, with different trends. The increase in coffee consumption at home has shifted the production of machines from the professional Horeca to smaller machines, with some exceptions such as the Chinese market. Depending on the response of the different countries to the pandemic, the markets have reacted differently, with a patchy result».
The coffee market is also undergoing major changes with consumption changes over the past year, but President Doglioni Majer says that manufacturers «are more affected by rising prices and shortages of industrial raw materials. Unfortunately, at the moment all sectors are also having to cope with rising prices for energy and other materials and shortages of electronics and other components”.
The professional coffee machine industry in fact represents complex technologies, supported by a long and highly specialised supplychain, both local (about 60% Italian) and foreign. The most modern machines consist of around 800 parts, including at least two or three microprocessors, which are currently very difficult to find».
Doglioni Majer continues, «Many companies in the sector have therefore had to increase their list prices by several percentage points. Fortunately, the market responded positively, as orders did not stop».
Ucimac is the Association of Espresso coffee machines and bar equipment manufacturers, a member of Assofoodtec and of Anima Confindustria
Anima Confindustria is the industrial trade organisation that represents companies in the miscellaneous and related engineering sector, a sector that employs 223,960 people for a turnover of 52.02 billion euros and an export/turnover share of 57.1% (2021 forecasts by the Anima Studies Office). The macro-sectors represented by Anima are: construction and infrastructure; handling and logistics; food production; energy production; industrial production; safety and environment.
