One of Illycaffe's outlets in San Francisco. (Steven Bracco/Hoodline)

Illycaffe Open to Partnership to Expand Cafe Network

A small and slow-growing market at home has prompted an Italian premium coffee maker Illycaffe to expand its business abroad by opening up to a strategic partnership.

Targeting the United States as its focused market, the group is planning to shift away from regular coffee bars to high-end cafes like what have done by rivals Starbucks and JAB. The grandson of Illycaffe founder and the current chairman Andre Illy said investors and banks have been seeking to invest in the company, adding that if they could find a U.S. expertise partner in the retail industry, it could be valuable to speed up the growth of its retail network in the country.

In October, Illy also announced a hint of potentially selling a minor stake of his business—the first time in its 86-year history—which the holding company is 100% owned by his family. However, he made it clear that Illycaffe wouldn’t open its capital to competitors or private equity firms like JAB.

Illycaffe currently has only 23 Illy-branded outlets in North America which included in its total 219 outlets globally. In comparison, Starbucks has around 14,000 cafes in the US alone and just opened up its new roastery market in New York. While JAB whose Intelligentsia Coffee chain become hipster favorite has over 10,000 stories in the US.

Looking at the numbers of outlets owned by its rivals, it seems the company needs to develop a highly strategic plan to enter the crowded market, but a senior beverages analyst Matthew Berry believes that it will be easier for the long-run family coffee business to distinguish itself in the US since Illycaffe’s offerings are difference than Starbucks and other rivals.

In 2018, Illycaffe posted an up 5% sales of 483 million euros, in which the adjusted core profit rose to 75.3 million euros.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/2019/07/04/illycaffe-chairman-says-open-to-partnership-to-expand-cafe-network