By James Wells

SYDNEY: Nespresso Australia has increased sales by over 100 per cent in the first five weeks of expanding its distribution to include De’Longhi Australia.

In late February, Nespresso formed an ongoing partnership with De’Longhi to co-brand coffee machines which use Nestle’s proprietary coffee capsule system that was previously managed by Magimix. The deal followed existing partnerships between De’Longhi and Nespresso in Austria, Spain and Germany.

De’Longhi joins Groupe’s Seb’s Krups brand as the only other local licensee of the Nespresso brand in small electrical appliances. Prior to signing De’Longhi, 80 per cent of Nespresso machines in Australia were sold by Krups.

According to Nespresso Australia general manager, Jerome Casteight, the increase in sales since De’Longhi branded machines were shipped to retailers in late April has been significant.

“We have experienced triple digit growth in terms of registrations over the last five weeks since De’Longhi started selling the machines. This is a fantastic result and we are optimistic that we will continue to have this growth,” Casteight said.

“The Krups Essenza model has been selling well through Myer, and the De’Longhi Essenza model is generally sold through Harvey Norman, but in some stores it is interesting to see the sales of both brands," he said.

According to De’Longhi, strong sales of Essenza coffee machines have been experienced in conjunction with the sales of the Nespresso-branded Aeroccino milk frothing solution.

“With the new machine at the new pricepoint, our demonstrators are finding it much easier to sell Nespresso. The design is something that stands out and the awareness of the capsule system is increasing particularly through the Nespresso boutique in Sydney.

De’Longhi will soon launch a range of coloured Essenza machines into the Australian market at an RRP of $299 including Fizzy Fucsia and Spicy Orange.