SEB Professional Beverage, part of Groupe SEB, is now presenting its five key coffee and beverage brands under the same umbrella, but how could the move give the equipment manufacturer a point of difference from its competition?
The coffee industry is complex, but success doesn’t necessarily take rocket science. Despite it facing a glut of global challenges – ranging from supply shortages, rising consumer demands, and the rapid rise and fall in beverage choices and trends – it is often still best to keep things simple.
That’s the approach SEB Professional Beverage took to its showcase at the 2025 Host Milano tradeshow, and it’s how the conglomerate sees the way forward in the operation of its portfolio of coffee and beverage brands.
New technologies and innovations from SEB Professional Beverage’s brands WMF – including a new WMF Office Line – Schaerer, Curtis, La San Marco, and Zummo were on display as a united front at the Fiera Milano in October to showcase the strength in numbers the wider business can offer its customers.
Global Marketing Director Tharyn Estevez has been a champion of this approach to present the brands side-by-side rather than independently. She says the unification under one umbrella helps give a stronger, real-world tangibility to what the company can achieve.
“We want to show real-life solutions. We started from the space of ‘we’re a great company that is manufacturing great machines’ but evolved to consider how we can reflect the real world of our customers,” she says.
“The idea is simple, and simplicity, to me, is what should drive everything we do.
“We wanted to help visitors at Host understand how each of our brands complements the other in the context of their business and how we can add value across different settings.”
Estevez hopes the simplicity of SEB Professional Beverage’s one-stop, integrated solution has left a strong impression on those who attended Host.
She says a key pillar of the brand’s growth strategy is to continue taking advantage of opportunities in the emerging markets of North America and Asia – all while consolidating in its home market of Europe.
“We know customers today are not just looking for standalone machines – they are looking for integrated concepts. A cross-brand presence allows us to showcase the full strength of our portfolio and how it could work seamlessly together to deliver end-to-end beverage solutions,” she says.
“This is just a result of the world continuing to change at incredible speed. On one hand, we know consumers want quality, variety, and sustainable choices. On the other, operators are straining because of things like staff shortages and efficiency pressures every day.
“We truly believe with the holistic positioning we have with all our brands we can respond to these needs in a more targeted way.”
Host Milano 2025 was the first time SEB Professional Beverage’s newest pair of brands – Zummo and La San Marco – were displayed alongside the more established members of the family.
La San Marco was acquired by the group in early 2023 and has considerable heritage in the Italian espresso machine and grinder manufacturing space, dating back more than 100 years.
Most of its products are manufactured in Gradisca d’Isonzo, Gorizia, near Italy’s eastern border with Slovenia.
Zummo, on the other hand, was acquired by the company a year earlier in 2022. Founded in Spain in 1992, it specialises in the manufacturing of automatic fruit juice extraction machines – a shift away from the original coffee- and tea-based trio of WMF, Schaerer, and Curtis.
Estevez says both new brands have expanded the ability for SEB Professional Beverage to offer a wider range solutions to customers.
“These two brands are extending our reach beyond our known universe,” she says.
“While our semi-automatic portafilter WMF espresso NEXT combines the best of the worlds of automation and barista craftsmanship, La San Marco machines place a special accent on their Italian origins and understanding of traditional coffee experiences.
“Then Zummo, from Valencia, brings so many interesting aspects of the fast-growing juice category into our offering. I love this because it adds a healthy and natural dimension to SEB Professional Beverage that pairs beautifully with coffee.”
The growth of the company because of the addition of these two brands was no more evident than at its integrated environment showings at Host, where it aimed to showcase its ability to provide for all aspects of beverage service in a range of settings.
Using a hotel as a key scenario, Estevez details how all five brands can work “seamlessly” to enable SEB Professional Beverage to be a one-stop shop.
“We wanted to connect everything into a real-life scenario so visitors could see themselves in the mirror and understand the chain of opportunities we offer,” she says.
“On top of that, we wanted to show our digital connections in the real case usage and make it easier for people to make decisions and understand all the benefits of working with a company that can provide this umbrella of solutions all under one roof.
“We know a hotel could serve premium espresso at its lobby bar with La San Marco, then in the dining area they could have a WMF or Schaerer for breakfast service and Curtis brewers for tea and coffee in conference areas. In addition to that, the coffee offering can be complemented by Zummo juicers providing fresh juice.”
What SEB Professional Beverage is hoping to achieve, not just from Host but as it moves into the future, is built on three identified pillars.
“Number one is simplicity: connecting to one provider allows customers to use their time searching for more growth opportunities rather than connecting with five different groups – each for a specific account,” Estevez says.
“The second thing is we really want to understand customers’ unique reality. We are experts at customising our solutions to their very unique credentials, regions, and needs.
“Number three, we’re definitely a company that wants to create these long-term relationships with our customers, which adds further understanding of the evolution of their needs in the future.”
That simplicity, according to Estevez, should result in clear benefits for SEB Professional Beverage’s customers across its café, hospitality, hotel, convenience store, office, and retail markets.
“All-in-all,” she says, “this integration means more business, more profits, and more relevance with the consumers our partners serve.”
For more information, visit groupeseb.com/en
This article was first published in the November/December 2025 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
