HEMRO

COFFEE BEANS AND GRINDING MACHINES

POWERED BY INSIDE FOOD & DRINK

BEANS

and GRINDINGCoffee machines

For many of us, coffee is an indispensable part of our daily routine. All over the world, drinking coffee is so popular that in some ways, it’s become a way of life. The Hemro Group proudly supplies the machinery and equipment that helps create quality coffee moments for enthusiasts worldwide. CEO Marcel Lehmann, and Lena Frick, Head of Group Marketing, spilt the coffee beans on the business of premium coffee grinders, for Richard Hagan.

Headquartered in the quaint, pic turesque town of Bachenbülach close to Zürich in Switzerland, the Hemro Group is a worldwide leader in coffee grinding, boasting decades of experience in the industry.

The company’s umbrella includes four wholly-owned coffee grinder brands: Mahlkönig, Ditting, Anfim and HeyCafé, through which Hemro supplies three main market categories. The first of those three is its professional solutions, which are mainly stand-alone grinders, in which Hemro enjoys a significant global market share.

The second is its component solutions, which include coffee machine technology and automatic machines, such as those found inside brewers. Most professional

coffee machines worldwide, utilise Hemro technology. Finally, Hemro supplies prod ucts into the home solutions category as well, for which it sells stand-alone coffee grinders for home use by enthusiasts and aspiring baristas.

Grinding through history

Hemro has a very interesting story behind it. The company was first established in 1999 as a joint venture between Hamburg’s Mahlkönig (Stawert) Grinder construction, and Switzerland’s Ditting Mechanical Engineering. Later, the joint venture was formalised into a new company called Hemro AG in 2008.

The new company grew rapidly and in 2013, Hemro AG acquired Anfim, an Italian

manufacturer of coffee machinery based in Milan. Meanwhile, the company signed a partnership with Shanghai-based HeyCafé from 2016 onwards and on the back of the success of that partnership, Hemro acquired and fully integrated HeyCafé only two years later in 2018. Simultaneously, the group of companies were renamed Hemro International AG to reflect the group’s global footprint and its world wide aspirations.

Whilst Hemro itself is a relatively young company, the brands under its roof have long histories. Mahlkönig, for example, dates back nearly a century to 1924. Known as ‘the king of grinders’, Mahlkönig has a truly global footprint via its network of dis tributors and partners located in over 100 countries. Its products can be found in inde p endent cafés, coffee chains and roasters as well as companies in the catering, retail and wholesale sectors.

Ditting Mechanical Engineering, the second of the two companies that formed Hemro, opened its doors in 1928 and has been involved in the manufacture of elec tric coffee grinders since they were invented in 1954.

These brands with their long histories are a real point of pride for Hemro, as CEO Marcel Lehmann emphasised: “We manage

the company like a start-up with huge growth and dynamic people, but we have the beauty of long-known brands with their unique heritage and outstanding and com bined expertise. Our enthusiasm and high growth added to these established brands is a fantastic situation for us to be in.”

Grinding innovation

True to its start-up culture, Hemro’s DNA is insistent on chasing growth and market share through innovation at every level.

“Since 2018, we’ve changed a lot,” Mr Lehmann revealed. “We introduced a hug e new product portfolio that’s innovative and driving market share. We’ve also improved a lot of internal and external processes as well as upgrading much of our physical infrastructure.”

Between 2020 and 2023, Hemro expects to roughly triple the total physical footprint of its facilities. In mid-2020, the company moved its main production facility into a new space that is roughly three times the size of its former site in Hamburg.

Meanwhile, in Italy, Hemro opened a new factory in a new address that is also three times the size of its previous space, while its Chinese factory received some exten sions to increase its floor space.

Hemro’s headquarters wasn’t left out of the plans and in early 2023, it will move to a new space near Zurich. Finally, in a particular highlight for the company, Hemro’s US branch office in Seattle recently moved into an old brewery in mid-2022.

“In 2021, we managed 50% growth and for 2022, we’re targeting more than 30%. We’ll have more than 450 employees glob ally and with all of our new space, we believe we’re an attractive employer which will help us produce the volumes demanded by the market,” Mr Lehmann confirmed.

Steaming hot market share

Mr Lehmann went on to detail some of the company’s extremely impressive growth and sales results in the past several years.

“In the last two years, we’ve nearly tripled the sales of our famous EK43 grinder that we sell through our profes sional solutions business unit. It’s all the more impressive given how successful that unit already was.”

Lena Frick, Group Head of Marketing, agreed: “We’re very proud of the EK43 because it’s iconic within the coffee industry. If you visit any premium coffee

shop in the world, there’s a high chance that you will see an EK43 grinder. It’s a massive success story for us. ”

Hemro’s Italian Anfim brand has been part of the growth action, too, as Mr Lehmann noted: “Since 2019, we’ve doubled our busi ness through our Anfim brand and proved its success in Asia and Europe, where we’re seeing long-lasting, sustainable growth. We’re winning market share for the long term.”

Notably, Hemro’s home solutions unit has also demonstrated significant growth since 2021 in particular. It’s delivered revenue increases exceeding 20% yearon-year following the company’s ambi tious, but hugely successful launch of its X54 grinder in mid-2021.

“It’s fantastic to see that people have embraced that kind of equipment at home. The X54 allows you to grind beans and also make espresso coffee. It’s one solu tion for multiple applications. We’re obvi ously very happy with the results of its launch so far,” Mr Lehmann added.

Part of the company’s growth is also being driven by its latest generation of espresso grinders. The machines feature ‘Grind by Weight’ technology and offer 0.1 g accuracy per shot. “Our whole

espresso range has more than tripled the volume of grinder sales we can do,” he remarked

Growing sustainable beans

As part of its social responsibility and sustainability efforts, Hemro has created a partnership to promote and honour Songwa Estates coffee farm in Tanzania and the communities that support it.

“We care about the community and our supply chain as well as our employees and customers,” Mr Lehmann explained. “Therefore, sustainability and this pro gramme is a high priority and very impor tant for us. We are involved in various upgrades at Songwa Estates, including boreholes, soccer fields and building new schools. It’s one way for us to show that it’s important to us to be responsible for what we’re doing.

“Through digitisation, we’re able to con nect to them and find opportunities to help them and invest in them,” he continued. “It’s vital that we see and understand the entire value chain; we want to always ensure that we understand the importance of the bean and that we value farmers and the work that they’re doing.”

A stirring strategy for the future

Hemro attributes its success to a number of factors, the first among which is its substantial global footprint.

“We’re different to our competitors because we’re a global company with sales offices in Seattle, Zurich, Melbourne,

Shanghai and elsewhere,” Mr Lehmann explained. “That network means that our design and engineering are influenced by all of these markets. Consumer behaviour in the US is different to that in China, for example, and we understand that dynamic better than the competition because we’re actually in China whilst most of our com petitors, are not.”

The CEO highlighted the company’s robust in-house development infrastruc ture as a second reason for its continued strong growth.

“We have a huge machine park and r esearch centre, developing and producing our high-quality grinding burrs in-house and developing the latest technology relating to how burrs can drive differences in the cup, in terms of flavour. This in-house capacity gives us a deep understanding of the bean and how to extract it into great coffee.”

Finally, and in closing, Mr Lehmann pointed to the role of the company’s ethos in its strong growth results. “You must care, be professional, and always consider a long-term view of the future. We believe that people want to have premium coffee They’re prepared to stand in long queues for it; it’s a lifestyle product. There’s also a huge demand for premiumisation, with many shops now having up to four grinders to extract the right taste from each type of bean. Our job, then, is to understand the bean and where it comes from, and to fill market gaps, deliver updates, and improve the lives of millions of baristas and coffee consumers every day.”

Marcel Lehmann, CEO

Photograph courtesy of @elbgoldkaffee