JEDDAH: Coffee culture is growing in this part of the world and keeping pace with it are investments in research and development (R&D) related to coffee making technologies.
“We have been regularly making investments in our R&D to ensure coffee making is hassles-free with one-touch-button machines,” a team of executives representing a major Italian manufacturer of coffee machines told a press conference on the sidelines of the launch of a coffee week at Electro store in Andalus Mall yesterday.
“It’s difficult to quantify how much we are investing in innovating and manufacturing new coffee making machines in our Italian factory, but that sum runs into millions of euros,” Paul Accornero, commercial director of Hong Kong-based DL Trading Ltd., said while focusing on DeLonghi’s living innovations. The group’s annual turnover exceeds 1.5 billion euros, including 300 million euros for its coffee machines.
Over a century ago, the DeLonghi brand started out in Treviso, Italy, as a spares workshop, where a strong commitment to excellence has served the companies growth ever since. “The DeLonghi brand itself is a testament to Italian design and quality craftsmanship, where acceptance is not just by accident, but fostered through a long tradition of good quality products with well-designed practical elements,” he said.
“The motivation of the DeLonghi group has continuously been the desire for innovation and development into diverse business areas and thus expansion,” Luca E. Tarani, DeLonghi’s product manager for coffee, said.
Significant investments into marketing, product line development, research and industrial design, have made DeLonghi a continuously growing, multi-specialist company. State-of-the-art manufacturing facilities enable the company to supply products that are competitive in cost and high in quality. “The products are truly living innovations with their unique features and benefits that provide convenience and herald quality living,” he said.
Demonstrated to be an authentic contender in the coffee making industry, the DeLonghi brand has developed a number of models to suit every coffee connoisseur’s needs ranging from the small coffee maker, to a fully automatic espresso machine. “DeLonghi products have been known to produce not only the best and durable machines but also produce a superior coffee taste that captures the authentic Italian experience,” Luca E. Taroni, produce manager for coffee at DeLonghi, said.
Sol Bou-Nacklie, vice president of Ibrahim Shaker Co. Ltd., which is the local distributor for DeLonghi, said the Kingdom’s taste for coffee was growing, and so the demand for automatic coffee machines was getting stronger. The company, which deals in a variety of products made by major international companies, had a SR1 billion turnover last year.
S.M. Arshad, senior manager and marketing consultant, Advanced Electronics Equipment Co., Electro The Specialist store, said three of its stores were currently operational, two of them in Riyadh and one in Jeddah. In a couple of months a fourth one will be added in Dhahran. ‘We have plans to open several stores across the Kingdom. The store is featuring a free sampling and tasting week of Italian espresso, cappuccino, Macchiato, Moka and cafelatte, he added. At a brief ceremony, Accornero presented a plaque to Electro Store Manager Mohammed Majed Asadi.