FDBusiness.com

Nestle has launched a new coffee machine designed to appeal to Europe’s millions of small businesses. The Nescafe Alegria, which is being rolled out by the company’s ‘out-of-home’ food services business Nestle Professional, is aimed at so-called ‘micro-enterprises’ of fewer than ten employees.

Micro-enterprises represent nine out of ten small to medium-sized enterprises in Europe, which in turn account for 99% of all businesses on the continent. Nestle says it has identified a gap in this market for a cost-effective system that allows small organisations to make a range of cafe-style coffees for their customers.

The design of the Nescafe Alegria is based on Nestle’s highly successful Nescafe Barista home coffee machine. Available in Japan only, Nescafe Barista was created by Nestle’s research and development network and launched in 2007. More than 600,000 have been sold since then, making it the most popular coffee machine in the country.

To adapt the system for small businesses inEurope, Nestle Professional increased the size of its water tank and renamed it to complement the existing Nescafe Alegria coffee machine range.

The Nescafe Alegria machine has already been launched in seven countries in Europe including Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and the United Kingdom. Nestle Professional plans to roll out the machine in other European countries later this year. The company may also launch it in Latin America and other parts of Asia.