* Archive page for historical reference only. This page is no longer being actively updated *
Profile subscribers click here for full profile
Lavazza is Italy's most celebrated coffee brand, the clear leader in its local market with around 37% retail share by value and a broad global footprint, with distribution in 100 countries around the world. It also operates its own branded cafes and retail outlets in Europe, North America, India and China, and markets A Modo Mio personal coffee makers in Europe. In 2016, it completed the purchase for €700m of the Carte Noire and Merrild coffee brands - local leaders in France and Denmark respectively - from newly merged competitor Jacobs Douwe Egberts, making it the global #3 in packaged retail coffee. Subsequent bolt-ons have included Canadian organic brand Kicking Horse, pods and machines brand Nims in Italy and French B2B distributor ESP. In 2018, it acquired Mars' Flavia and Klix away-from-home coffee vending systems for an estimated $650m. They now operate as Lavazza Professional. There is also a licensing arrangement with PepsiCo in several European territories to market ready-to-drink iced coffees. The group sold its minority stake in US group Keurig Green Mountain in 2015 following that company's acquisition by coffee rival JAB Holdings. Although fresh ground coffee accounts for the vast majority of sales, the group has a strong position in machine pods and unground beans, and a growing presence in instant coffee. Lavazza has long-established sponsorship ties as the official coffee of top Italian football team Juventus, of several Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the Guggenheim art museums in New York and Venice, and Hollywood awards events including the Golden Globes and Oscars. Still family owned and controlled, the business was originally established in the early years of the 20th century when Luigi Lavazza began blending his own coffee for sale in his grocery store in Turin. It began expanding its footprint beyond Italy for the first time in the 1980s. Alberto Lavazza is chairman, and five other family members serve on the board. Non-family member Antonio Baravalle is CEO. Net revenues hit a record high for 2019 of €2.2bn, with net profit of €127m. Italy accounted for around a third of revenues. France is now the group's second largest market following the purchase of Carte Noire. The main Lavazza brand accounts for a little over two-thirds of group sales; Carte Noire for almost another quarter.
Capsule checked 3rd March 2021
Subscribe to access account assignments
Adbrands Account Assignments track account management for the world's leading brands and companies, including details of which advertising agency handles which accounts in which countries for major markets
Subscribers only:
Account assignments & selected contact information
Which agencies handle advertising for Lavazza? Find out more from the Account Assignments database
Who are the competitors of Lavazza? See Non Alcoholic Beverages Sector for other companies
Advertising expenditure of Lavazza? See ranking of Declared Advertising Costs
Adbrands Social Media 12th Dec 2018: "More Than Italian". For the domestic market, coffee roaster Lavazza is best-known for its long-running "Paradiso" ad campaign, a series of comedy skits conceived by main agency Armando Testa and set in a fanciful version of heaven. These used to feature megastars (Julia Roberts was paid $1.5bn for one spot back in 2010) but for the past couple of years have starred local comedian Mauricio Crozza in a variety of wigs and funny voices. They're very Italian, and don't translate at all well internationally. So Y&R Milan has the task of delivering more cosmopolitan concepts for other markets. And what more international language can there be than football? To celebrate the company's new status as official coffee roaster to both Arsenal and Liverpool football clubs, noted Egyptian director Ali Ali (famous for those widely acclaimed Panda Cheese ads a few years ago) goes in search of the "real Italian coffee" with a mixed bag of comic stereotypes, and a few Premier League cameos thrown in for good measure.
Adbrands Weekly Update 18th Oct 2018: The bitter rivalry in the coffee sector between Nestle and JAB Holdings - owners of Keurig and Jacobs Douwe Egberts - just got even more acrimonious. JAB has secured a license from Italy's Illy Caffe to begin marketing Illy-branded generic capsules to fit Nestle's Nespresso coffee system. Meanwhile, Illy's Italian rival Lavazza is trying to keep up with the two global leaders with acquisitions of its own. It has agreed to buy Mars Inc's Flavia and Klix coffee vending systems, used mostly in offices and other away-from-home settings. No price was disclosed but Reuters estimated a price tag of $650m, a little under twice annual revenues. Perhaps the most unusual addition to the coffee machine sector comes from GlaxoSmithKline, which this week launched a line of "PowerPods" for its Theraflu cold and flu remedy in the US. The single-serve capsules are designed to work with "most single-serve coffee-makers" including both Keurig and Nespresso.
Adbrands Weekly Update 17th Mar 2016: Italy's leading coffee roaster Luigi Lavazza completed its purchase of the Carte Noire and Merrild coffee brands, local leaders in France and Denmark respectively. The price was around €700m. Lavazza agreed to buy the brands last summer. Their previous owners Mondelez and DE Master Blenders were ordered by regulators to divest them as a condition of their merger to create new global sector leader Jacobs Douwe Egberts.
Subscribe to Adbrands.net to access account assignments
All rights reserved © Mind Advertising Ltd 1998-2022
