It can be difficult to run companies around the Sunday lunch table. For nearly a century, the unmistakable gurgle of the Moka Express has provided a soundtrack to mornings in Italian homes. Over that period, Alfonso Bialetti’s octagonal aluminium coffee pot, invented in 1933, became an icon of the country’s industrial design around the world. As capsule machines transformed coffee consumption and chipped away at the Moka’s dominance, Bialetti borrowed heavily to search for growth beyond its signature product. But its diversification failed to deliver and it struggled to keep pace with larger competitors in an increasingly global market.
Now, both the company and the Moka are staging a comeback after being acquired by NUO, a Milan-based investment firm backed by private investors including the billionaire Pao shipping dynasty of Hong Kong and descendants of France’s Hermès family. “We want to stay focused on the Moka and the coffee that goes with it — we are a coffee company and we want to be recognised as such, from China to the US,” says Giuseppe Morici, a veteran consumer-goods executive appointed as the group’s chair by NUO.
Under Morici and chief executive Egidio Cozzi, Bialetti is attempting to bring Italian-style coffee to the masses. The once-utilitarian silver Moka now comes in Barbie pink, emblazoned with motivational slogans. Other versions wear the colours of football clubs, while collaborations have stretched from Dolce & Gabbana to Netflix series Bridgerton and Stranger Things. The marketing blitz aims to make a simple but still effective invention desirable to a new generation.
Italy’s unusually high concentration of small businesses weighs on productivity, which has stagnated for 25 years alongside GDP growth. Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, said last month small companies were the “backbone of the nation”. But globalisation rewards scale, access to capital and professional management — advantages that remain elusive for many Italian firms.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing