In 2009, the Espresso machines market represented the most dynamic product family of the cooking area in the small domestic appliances sector.

Although Espresso machines continue to have a positive performance in terms of volume (+4%), in value terms the market is flat (0%), representing a slowdown compared to the strong growth of previous years.

The negative development of traditional and full automatic segments, which have shown a double digit decrease for 2009 (-20% value, -15% volume on Year End 2009), has been offset by the important progress of the portioned system; the ‘open’ system rose 13%, while the ‘closed’ system increased 18% in value terms, sustaining the final market results.

The Christmas period represents the most important season for the Italian coffee machines industry: a third of annual sales volume was realised during Nov-Dec 2009, with the significance of the portioned closed segment (45% of annual sales) increasing.