De'Longhi's much-cherished status as Australia's only Nespresso machine partner came to an end after five years with Breville announcing it would be releasing a co-branded range of Nespresso capsule coffee machines by mid-year.
"The portioned coffee machine market in Australia and New Zealand is booming with its value in excess of AUD $100 million per annum," said Breville general manager Jeremy Sargeant.? "This category will continue to be a major growth area and the Nespresso partnership truly complements our current range."
Nespresso, globally, has always favoured having two or three machine partners in each region and, in the past, has worked with Groupe SEB and Magimix in Australia. De'Longhi may have been a little sad to lose it virtual exclusive on the Nespresso distribution but it was still proud of its incredible success and accepted the decision:
"De'Longhi fully understood being the sole machine partner of Nespresso in Australia and New Zealand was an exception to the international Nespresso model but we were and are still convinced that it was a 'sustainable' exception that worked very well for all the stakeholders involved: De'Longhi, Nespresso, our retail partners and the end consumers," said De'Longhi Australia CEO Paolo Albertoni.
While in Las Vegas for CES that day, UnderCurrent spied this amusing electronic vending machine:
Flash Forward:
Breville showcased its first range of Nespresso coffee machines at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo and both machine partners joined Nespresso for the very successful launch of the Umilk machine in mid-2013.