Melitta Professional explores the shifting terrain of customer expectations and how operators can tackle the challenges brought by the rise of personalised coffee beverages.
Global expectations on coffee are changing. The rise of signature drinks, cold coffee beverages, and social media have shifted the consumer landscape.
For many operators, it is no longer enough to only offer café staples like the humble latte, espresso, or cappuccino at a reasonable speed and price. Instead, the globalisation of the industry means more people are searching for new and exciting drinks that are evolving around the world.
Wrangling the modern coffee consumer market in Asia is a vastly different proposition to doing so in Europe or North America. According to Melitta Professional Chief Product and Solutions Officer Robin Franke, each region the company operates in has its own traditions, trends, and priorities that are unique to its customers.
“The challenges of modern coffee are not just restricted to the size of a customer base. It’s a question of customer expectations and where they come from, no matter what region of the world they are in,” says Robin Franke.
“During my last trip to Asia I saw groups of people making videos and taking pictures of drinks to post on social media. They bought the drinks not necessarily to drink them, but to tell a story. That creates an added complexity to make those drinks look good.
“Drinks are colourful, flavourful, and the challenge is now being able to cover a broad and complex portfolio. You have consumers, especially younger generations, who want Instagrammable drinks that are more of an experience.”
He believes even in markets such as the United States (US), where a lot of coffee is taken black or with creamer, having a machine produce a good cup of coffee is no longer enough.
“If you’re in a typical petrol station or convenience retailer you need to offer a lot of bean choice at the same time as offering different syrups and milk types to enable personalisation,” he says.
The modern global coffee culture is creating new and exciting products every day, but not all of them stick around. For every trend like matcha that has grown into an industry standard around the world, there are those like bulletproof coffee or charcoal lattes that fade out of the consumer psyche almost as quickly as they rose to notoriety.
To navigate this constantly shifting territory, Robin Franke says Melitta Professional helps its customers by identifying trends and collaborating on drinks recipes, in addition to supplying automatic coffee machines.
“Our challenge is to transform current trends into recipes that are crafted to a good standard but are also quick to change, because a lot of these fun drink trends are not here to stay,” he says. “A lot of customers are becoming fully marketing driven rather than focusing on operational stability.
“Delivering these complex drink portfolios can be difficult. Automation simplifies operations and allows staff to take care of their customers instead of the coffee equipment, and coffee solutions need to grow with that desire to support best performance.”
Melitta Professional’s fully automatic machines can be put to use in a range of settings, from US convenience stores to European bakeries and Asian cafés. Robin Franke says the company sees great potential in customers being able to diagnose and assess what is working in the modern drink era – and what isn’t – to adapt its coffee offering and keep consumers happy.
“Hot coffee is shrinking in relevance in favour of cold or over-ice products, which challenges technology,” says Robin Franke. “We are in a bit of a playground at the moment with drink styles, complexity, and expectations, and those all need to be met.
“From my perspective, that fun, creative piece is here to stay, and complexity in drinks will only grow. It’s something that will challenge our industry and products must be developed accordingly.
“We need to put the customer at the centre and that means we must accept there are different challenges and opportunities in each region in terms of drink quality and perception.”
The international interconnectedness of coffee consumer culture means the demand to experience new and exciting beverages is high. Curiosity runs rampant in this space and creates challenges for coffee machines to keep up.
Melitta Professional now offers a broad range of services as part of the broader Melitta Group, which enables its customers to tap into the unique needs of their own markets.
“Our biggest opportunities come from having insight into different markets, not only in technology but also in consumer management,” says Stefanie Heidemann, Melitta Professional Manager for Training and Marketing Intelligence.
“A lot of these challenges come down to equipment and technology, but the question then becomes what can optimisation of product provide the customer? Drinks may have a new purpose like looking good on social media, but coffee still has a lot of deep social aspects in modern society.
“Our goal is to bring all that together and offer insights, knowledge, technology, and solutions for every part of this journey. Listening and understanding our customers is very important. When we can understand what drives them, we can help build bridges between their products and what customers want.”
Robin Franke believes Melitta’s background as a machine manufacturer and evolution to a solutions provider has it well positioned to meet customers’ needs, regardless of where they are in the world.
“The solution space starts with the machine. Our heritage is in equipment manufacturing, but around that we have access to coffee beans and digital solutions, so we can build transparency for our customers,” he says.
“We can change the game by viewing the whole operation holistically. That can start with an assessment of an operation’s drink portfolio and where they want to be versus the competition. Then we look at where we see big levers for them to make steps towards what are usually ambitious goals, and then you can sync that entire chain.
“We are aiming to help customers understand their individual level of coffee operations and how to achieve their targets – sometimes with additional coffee beans, new recipes, standardisation, or a combination of solutions. With holistic expertise in coffee, coffee machines, technical service, digital solutions, and financing, Melitta Professional supports its partner companies in the out-of-home market according to their individual needs. We have the building blocks and are ready to use them.”
In China, one of the fastest growing coffee consumer markets in the world, espresso is often not even on the menu as an independent option. Rather, it is used more as an ingredient to create different drinks.
In Europe, however, the espresso shot is still the calling card of countless cafés and coffee settings. Then, the US is its own beast where caffeination and convenience reign supreme and drip coffee and Americanos are often the beverage of choice.
It’s not only Melitta’s presence in these markets that can provide a business with a key point of difference in its service offering to customers but rather its ability to assess new concepts and pivot when new trends emerge anywhere in the world.
“Our presence in local markets and our understanding of markets needs to be constantly challenged, because this way we get a very early understanding of where things might move and how we can respond to that,” says Robin Franke.
“As part of the Melitta Group we can provide our customers not just equipment but also tailored services and access to individual coffee blends. If we continue to look on our products as ‘only machines’, we miss out in the challenges of the coffee industry.
“If we combine our strength, market experience, service capabilities, and coffee heritage, we can build coffee solutions that will make the difference and leave happy consumers with a cup of good coffee.”
For more information, visit melitta-professional.com
This article was first published in the September/October 2025 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
