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MILAN – Caffitaly, a coffee-machine and capsule manufacturer and Italy’s seventh-largest roaster by revenue, is opening a new chapter in its history. After more than a year and a half of financial difficulties, the recapitalization has been completed and the company has laid out a three-year strategic plan aimed at relaunching itself. The plan’s goals are to strengthen Caffitaly’s positioning between boutique-style shops and multi-brand stores, and to expand in the OCS (Office Coffee Service) channel.
Leading this new phase is Andrea Zocchi, who took over as CEO on 1 July after serving as CFO and COO from early 2024. He is now steering a turnaround plan backed by a capital injection of just under €100 million. Caffitaly’s two shareholder funds – Belgian holding company CNP (the majority investor) and Italy’s Alpha Group – have put in €37 million, persuading the creditor banks to convert half of their loans into financial participation instruments worth roughly €60 million.
On the eve of HostMilano 2025, Zocchi outlined the steps of the restructuring and the projects planned for the coming years.
€100 million plan to return Caffitaly to growth
“When we arrived at the start of 2024, the company was under severe pressure from its financial leverage,” Zocchi explains. “This was not an unusual situation for companies owned by private equity funds, which often end up with debt built on the assumption of steady growth. But when the business plans are not met, financial stress builds up and cash generation is not sufficient to service the debt.”
To overcome the crisis, Caffitaly made use of the “composizione negoziata della crisi,” a negotiated crisis-composition procedure under Italian law. This mechanism allowed the company to shield itself from creditors and create the conditions for a relaunch.
“After 18 months of work with top legal and financial advisors, the process was completed last September 12 with a total equity improvement of about €100 million. Today our debt is just over three and a half times EBITDA, which allows us to pursue the new industrial plan with confidence,” Zocchi adds.
Zocchi’s objective is clear: “To grow by 10% per year, lifting revenue from the current €130 million to over €200 million, and to raise EBITDA to at least 15% of sales. In doing so, he aims to create more than €30 million of value and make the company attractive to new investors”.
Proximity retail and customer experience
One of the pillars of the plan is strengthening the retail channel, which today comprises about 100 single-brand Caffitaly stores in Italy and more than 400 multi-brand outlets.
Zocchi explains: “We want to invest in existing stores, improving customer service and opening new local shops, both in major cities and provincial towns. The concept will be halfway between a luxury boutique and a multi-brand store: well-curated but accessible spaces designed to give the customer the full Caffitaly coffee experience, from selecting the finest green coffee beans in the field to the roasting process.”
Focus on OCS and new products
Another strategic lever is boosting the OCS and small HoReCa channels.
“Caffitaly was born for the domestic market, but today we also want to offer offices a closed system with quality machines and dedicated capsules,” Zocchi says. “Not only espresso coffee, but also instant coffee, cappuccino, ginseng coffee, tea, and herbal infusions – over 15 variants that set us apart from competitors.” Caffitaly is in many countries.
Caffitaly originally started in Gaggio Montano (Bologna) more than twenty years ago. But today, as Zocchi notes, the historic plant there produces fewer capsules than the Capriate facility in Bergamo, which is now the main site. “At Capriate we have a 55,000-square-meter facility – more than double the size of the original Gaggio site. Now on the production front, the company aims to increase capsule output by 150% by 2026 and machine output by 40%, thanks especially to the Capriate plant in Bergamo, which is now the main production site with 14 active lines.”
Sustainability and innovation of Caffitaly capsules
Caffitaly remains committed to its exclusive system of eight grams of roasted coffee per capsule, considered crucial for espresso quality.
“Despite the rise in green coffee prices, we have decided to maintain this standard, even at the cost of reducing our margins in the short term,” Zocchi affirms.
“For our capsules, sustainability remains a priority: today 98% of our plastic capsules are recyclable, and we have already developed a compostable version meeting industrial composting standards. However, the market is not always willing to absorb the extra cost.”
Looking ahead, Caffitaly is also evaluating aluminium solutions — a material that offers excellent recyclability and could be a preferred path for the mass market.
HostMilano and international partnerships
Caffitaly will have a prominent stand at HostMilano 2025, where it will introduce new professional coffee and milk machines developed in partnership with Costa Coffee. “The project is the result of work begun two years ago and involves three new coffee and milk machines destined for the British chain,” Zocchi says. “The first will be unveiled in September.”
As for opening single-brand Caffitaly cafés, Zocchi remains cautious: “For now we are concentrating on boutiques with tasting corners. The first Caffitaly café could arrive within the next 24 months, but we want to proceed step by step and invest judiciously.”
