KNOWLEDGE LEADER

DETERMINED TO DELIVER

Enrico Bracesco became the new General Manager of Gruppo Cimbali on 1 September 2021. He will lead the company process of renewal and development, which includes entering new business sectors, diversifying the produce range, opening an e-commerce channel, and rebranding all brands.

Forward focus

Gruppo Cimbali General Manager Enrico Bracesco talks about plans for the company’s first Australian subsidiary and why it intends to stay close to the market leaders.

Enrico Bracesco describes the past year as “a challenging and thrilling adventure”. In many ways, the newly appointed General Manager of Gruppo Cimbali says the year of reflection and preparation is just what the company needed to strengthen the value proposition of its four brands – Slayer, Cimbali, Faema and Casadio.

“We reflected upon who we are, what we have been doing well, what we have been missing, and how to project new trajectories and capture new trends,” Enrico says.

Now, with a solid investment platform for each brand in distinctive markets, Gruppo Cimbali is ready to diversify its product range and services, and open its first Australian subsidiary from Q1 2022.

“The reason why we’re investing in the Asia Pacific, starting with the opening of our Singapore subsidiary in 2018 and then the Australian head office in Melbourne, is because we recognise the high potential of the markets we want to remain closely connected to. We want to better understand cultural trends and industry insights to integrate them into our product development,” Enrico says.

“Typically, very interesting trends originate in Australia or Korea that then extend all over the world. We want to stay ahead of the game, and you do that by standing connected to market leaders.”

Previously, Gruppo Cimbali has been present in the Australian market with three of its four brands – Slayer, Faema and La Cimbali – occupying completely different routes to market through distributors, roasters, or local agents.

Enrico says all access points will

remain, with the company’s Australian subsidiary only helping to position the Italian manufacturer at every market touchpoint.

“Slayer is a specialty-driven brand that is expanding rapidly. We see a fantastic future ahead. I have to say, however, the two latest product launches from our technically-driven La Cimbali M200 professional machine and artisan-focused Faemina for Faema, were developed keeping in mind the drivers for business in Australia, among other key markets,” Enrico says.

“We have the upmost respect for the Australian market, which is very much evolved and advanced. Our customers around the world are aware of what’s available in the Australian market in terms of technology and different kinds of coffee consumption, so I’m very confident we will have a positive reception for our new products in Australia and New Zealand.”

With 85 per cent of Gruppo Cimbali’s revenue made abroad, the company’s new Melbourne subsidiary is part of a larger plan to strengthen its market position through global expansion into the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Americas.

“The name of the game is defending our high market share. We’re already big in Europe, but at the same time, we recognise there’s much more room for growth for our brands internationally in key areas,” Enrico says.

Gruppo Cimbali is represented in 130 countries and has 12 subsidiaries across the United States, China, Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.

Where it does not have a direct presence, it seals exclusive agreements with strong international partners that represent and distribute its brands. Currently, Gruppo Cimbali has more than 700 distributor agreements in place.

What will be pivotal to maintain throughout Gruppo Cimbali’s global expansion, Enrico adds, is the deep connection the company has to its Italian roots.

“If you are fast paced in innovation, it’s easy to lose track of where you come from. We must always remain true to our core values and the market where everything started. It’s part of our identity,” he says.

Also part of its identity is Gruppo Cimbali’s design strategy, which Enrico says has always been predominant. Gruppo Cimbali remains the only company in the coffee industry to be awarded the prestigious Compasso d’Oro, or ‘Golden compass’, industrial design award in 1962 for its Pitagora coffee machine.

“The company holds great pride for its award-winning products of high design and innovative technology that embrace the Made in Italy foundation. Being ambassadors of Made in Italy allows us to be in touch with our regions and connected to our values, which is priceless for a company that is well known internationally. Our attention to design together with our obsession for performance are part of our DNA,” Enrico says.

These qualities are evident in Gruppo Cimbali’s release of the Faemina one-group espresso machine as part of the company’s strategy to emerge in sectors it wasn’t fully operational in before.

“Our customers and partners have been repeatedly asking Gruppo Cimbali to offer a solution for the at-home and high-end premium professional segment. We recognise we’re not the first to launch into this space, but when we decide to do something, we try to do it well and properly,” Enrico says.

“We’re very proud of this new product, and the fact that coffee consumption on a worldwide scale is set to increase in younger demographics according to recent studies, gives us great hope for future business and access to new customers.”

Gruppo Cimbali came close to releasing the Faemina in the 1980s before deciding to focus on the professional sector. However, since the pandemic and accelerated consumption of coffee at home, Enrico says it was hard to look past the demand and launched the product at Milan Design Week in September 2021, then to the global coffee industry at Host Milan in October 2021. The Faemina will be available in Australia through distributor networks and via Gruppo Cimbali’s e-commerce website from April 2022.

Beyond Faemina, Enrico says the professional machine market is largely competitive. What’s critical, he says, is to continue driving automation across each of its brands.

“Our customers are facing pressure to do more in less time. As a result, there’s demand for simple intuitive interfaces, strengthened

Gruppo Cimbali launched the Faemina espresso machine in reaction to the strong home coffee consumption movement in 2021.

milk systems in our fully automatic models, valuable data on consumer insights, and functions that allow multiple operations at the same time,” he says.

As such, Gruppo Cimbali plans to invest in a stronger and larger ecosystem for its products. It aims to partner with third party companies to create a seamless experience in terms of remote-control access and contactless functionality of products, cloud-based preventative maintenance, and a range of accessible service solutions via digital connectivity.

“Connectivity is absolutely critical. It’s something we would like to work more on moving forward, and something that will be present to different extents across all brands, but predominately in Faema and La Cimbali where the penetration within large operators is big,” Enrico says.

“You drive change through innovation, technology, and by proposing state-of-theart solutions to the market. You also drive change through setting standards.”

Enrico has shared this attitude since he first joined Gruppo Cimbali as Chief Commercial Officer in May 2019 to help coordinate the business strategy and rebranding of the company’s four brands.

An industrial engineer by trade with a degree in engineering management and a master’s degree from the London Business School, Enrico held managerial positions with large multinational companies before coffee came calling. This included working in the United Kingdom for more than a decade at heating and air-conditioning services company Riello Energy, and fitness equipment manufacturer Technogym.

“It was a bit daunting [joining Gruppo Cimbali] at the beginning, but in hindsight it was the best step I could have made. A common trait in all three industries is that the product has always been technical with a big element of service and asset management in the offering. But the passion, drive, and element of pleasure you find in the coffee industry is something you don’t find anywhere else,” Enrico says.

From the outset, his perception of Gruppo Cimbali was “a manufacturer of premium brands with global brand awareness and a quintessential Made in Italy company”, and he wasn’t wrong.

Since 1912, Gruppo Cimbali has been a leader in the design and production of professional espresso machines and coffee shop equipment. It operates through three production plants in Italy and one in the United States, employing around 700 staff.

“Gruppo Cimbali embraces the perfect mix of product, technology, tradition and history, and is a classic example of a company that dives into the future with innovation and never-ending research to improve things like pressure profiling, but at the same time keeps connected to its tradition and roots,” Enrico says.

To lead the company into its next phase of development, Enrico was appointed General Manager on 1 September 2021.

Enrico says the biggest challenge will be his ability to translate Gruppo Cimbali’s long-term vision into daily operations and gain traction with customers, but is confident that along with his dedicated team, he has placed the company in the best position to succeed.

“The team acknowledge there is a long-term, ambitious vision for Cimbali Group due to our solid brand equity and investment platform – but our brands and the people of this company deserve an ambitious vision, and that’s what I intend to deliver,” he says.

For more information, visit www.gruppocimbali.com

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