At the end of the three-year term, Mr. Roberto Morelli (Director of Business Development illycaffè) was re-elected Chairman of the Consortium for the Development and Protection of the Standard E.S.E. (Easy Serving Espresso).
The choices made by the Members that at the meeting confirmed the strategic importance of the compostability certification for the future of the Standard E.S.E., expressed continuity with the past.
Milan, March 2013 – The Partners’ Meeting of the E.S.E. Consortium reconfirmed all the members of the Board of Directors that will lead the E.S.E. Consortium until 2015. The following directors maintain their position in the Board: Mario Cerutti (Luigi Lavazza SpA), Renaud Gey (Groupe Seb), Michael McCauley (Cafes Richard), Roberto Morelli (illycaffè SpA), Paolo Torri (Cimbali Group) and Franco Guzzi (General Director of the Consortium).
The Board of Directors has re-elected by a unanimous vote the outgoing Chairman, Mr. Roberto Morelli, who in illycaffè holds the position of Director of the business strategies, and is also Director of the Ernesto Illy Foundation and newly-appointed Director of the Coffe Cluster (thematic pavilion) of Expo 2015, with which the Triestine Company has just signed a strategic partnership.
The Consortium for the Development and Protection of the Standard E.S.E. (Easy Serving Espresso)1 is the only organization in the world that promotes vertical integration between roasters, manufacturers of espresso machines and pod machines and in recent years has earned an international reputation for the standard E.S.E. as “the only industrial open standard”. This was possible thanks to the technical characteristics that make each E.S.E. paper coffee pod compatible with all the E.S.E. espresso machines. Today, the Consortium is getting ready to assert the complete eco-sustainability of the E.S.E. standard coffee pod, confirmed by the positive results achieved in numerous and extensive biodegradability and compostability tests, a necessary step in order to obtain the relevant certification.
“The Partners’ Meeting accepted the suggestion expressed by the Board of Directors and by me, in my position of outgoing Chairman, to work with continuity with the previous mandate. – declared Mr. Morelli immediately after his appointment – We all considered still valid and relevant the objectives, shared in several occasions, which are linked to the forthcoming achievement of the voluntary compostability certification regulated by the standard UNI EN 13432:2002 and now supported by the recent EU Directive of 7 February 2013.”
The Consortium thus has all the elements to complete the certification of compostability process, that was shared over the last three years, and the Chairman, Mr. Roberto Morelli, has no hesitation in stating that “The E.S.E. standard has more than interesting prospects and the E.S.E. standard paper coffee pod is a mature product but is far from being outdated.”
Such statements can be demonstrated through the observation of some objective facts. As Mr. Morelli points out, “First, due to the increased environmental awareness that is now widespread in both leading and emerging countries, and has led to the proliferation of the so-called environmentally friendly products. In this context – concludes the Chairman – the consumer is certainly already able to identify in the combination “paper + coffee”, which is typical of the E.S.E. standard, a natural affiliation of the paper pod to these categories of eco-friendly products”.
We should also mention the steady growth of the portioned coffee segment. “In 2010, we were all aware of the fact that the portioned coffee market accounted for 8% of the global coffee market – points out Mr. Roberto Morelli – with a year-on-year growth rate of approximately 20%, which is unique in the food industry. Today it is estimated that in 2015 the portioned coffee market may represent 14% of the global coffee market; in terms of value, this corresponds to approximately 3 billion euro of portioned coffee sold worldwide (data referred to the modern retail, Source Euromonitor).
The partners of the E.S.E. Consortium confirmed the decision to focus on a project that will help confirm the original strengths of the E.S.E. standard: the freedom to choose between different brands (coffee machines) as mutually compatible, the flexibility of the offer, ease of use, convenience, eco-sustainability.
“In the current context of constant renewal, where there are several offers of high-tech closed systems that ensure consistent quality and taste, but are binding due to the forced coupling of espresso machine and coffee single-serving – concludes the Chairman, Mr. Morelli – the Consortium once again will take up the challenges of the portioned coffee market in line with what is clearly stated in its name: developing and protecting the standard of an open system for the espresso preparation”.
