Nestlé: New player in consumer appliances
To sell portable coffeemakers from next month
Are your local coffee parlours failing to meet your craving for personalised cup of coffee— anytime, anywhere? If yes, then Nestlé has a solution. The food and beverages major, catering to instant coffee lovers for the past 55 years, is coming up with a portable coffee maker, which can offer a wide variety of the beverage at the place and time of your convenience.
Nescafe E, an eight-inch coffeemaker, comes in two parts— a mug and a dock. With this, the company begins its journey in the consumer appliances space in the country next month. Unlike other home coffee makers, Nescafe E allows one to carry it along and comes with pre-loaded features for users’ preferred sip of cappuccino, latte or cold coffee.
In addition, a smartphone application makes sure the user doesn't miss out on the opportunity of sharing the experience of hassle-free coffee making with friends, said Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director of Nestlé India.
The product, launched in Cyprus a few weeks ago, is the first from Nestlé’s stable in the personalised coffee-making space. Globally, a Hong Kongbased company — Wacaco — markets a similar product called Minipresso. According to Narayanan, Nescafe, which holds over 50 per cent share in the country's ~14-billion instant coffee market, will bring more consumers on board with its new initiative.
Nestlé has a wide presence in the professional coffee machine space with its Nescafe Solution machines. But the firm is now working on a project to come up with similar personal is ed appliances for other product categories. Incidentally, Nestlé’s beverages portfolio, where Nescafe is a dominant brand, accounts for about 12 per cent of the firm's ~100-billion revenue and registered volume growth of 10.6 per cent in 2017. Narayanan said it had continued to grow in double digits in 2018.
Growing volume uptake across categories is now forcing Nestle to expand its production capacity. “While most of our existing plants have vacant space for further expansion, new projects are also in discussion,” he said.
However, surging prices of essential commodities such as wheat and fuel are keeping the company executives busy on the planning board. According to Narayanan, the firm may need to hike prices in select categories of products if the trend continues. “Already our transport partners are pushing for revision of rates,” he said.