13 December 2007 – Swiss food giant Nestle intends to double sales of its coffee brand Nespresso between 2006 and 2009, it announced as it inaugurated its flagship espresso store in Paris.
Nespresso is Nestle’s fastest growing brand, with over 40% annual growth, and enjoys high profit margins.
Nestle has identified Asia and the US as targets of expansion for its espresso brand. The group has been focusing its efforts on the former in 2007 and plans to make the latter a priority for the future. Asia and the US aren’t traditionally espresso-drinking areas but Nestle believes in their market potential.
So far this year, Nestle has opened stores in Seoul, Beijing and Hong Kong and further store openings are planned in Shanghai and Singapore for 2008. The group also intends to treble the number of Nespresso stores in the US, from three to ten, by the end of 2008. The Swiss-based company will have opened 116 stores worldwide by the end of this year. It plans to take this total to 250 by 2010.