An initial public offering isn’t in the cards for now, though Steiner declines to rule one out for the future. Thermoplan’s revenue touched 130 million francs last year, up from less than 100 million francs five years ago. Other clients include Nestle, Google Inc. Today, the Seattle- based giant accounts for a third of Thermoplan’s sales. At one point Thermoplan was delivering 84 machines a day to the world’s largest coffee-shop operator. Steiner said his company’s ability to work swiftly and innovatively was what clinched the deal, calling it “the power of the big and the flexibility of the small.”Īssembling a machine, primarily by hand, takes six to eight hours. Both companies declined to comment on the possibility. Thermoplan’s contract with Starbucks is up for renewal next year. “Its reduced height and ease of use encourages baristas to connect with customers for personal, immediate interaction and service,” Lisa Passe, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said via e-mail. To make a cappuccino, the operator needs merely to select from a computerized menu. The Mastrena, which Thermoplan produces just for Starbucks, was introduced in 2008. With the contract, Thermoplan’s machines have become ubiquitous at Starbucks outlets from New York and Paris to Beijing.Ī basic Thermoplan model starts at 7,000 francs ($7,700), with bigger, self-cleaning ones going for as much as 17,000 francs. One of democracy’s fundamental pillars is under attack, and under scrutiny, across the world. The coffee-shop chain had decided to replace traditional espresso machines that require baristas to prepare grounds and steam milk, with automatic models.Ī global stress test for freedom of expression Then, in 1999, with just 20 employees, its fortunes soared on an exclusive global contract for Starbucks. Thermoplan’s foray into the world of coffee can be traced back three decades when it made whipped-cream machines. The shares rose 0.1 percent to $76.87 at 9:59 a.m. Starbucks said last month that it plans to add 800 new stores in China and the Asia-Pacific region in fiscal 2015.
Thermoplan joins companies from watchmakers such as Swatch Group AG to producers of precision tools like Mikron Holding AG setting their sights on more business from Beijing and Shanghai. have given Steiner cause for optimism.ĭespite being home to big listed companies such as Nestle SA and UBS AG, 99 percent of Swiss businesses are SMEs, generating two-thirds of employment. A free-trade accord between Switzerland and China and the rising popularity of creamy coffee drinks in the Asian giant - with China set to become Starbucks’s biggest market outside the U.S. With 230 employees, Thermoplan, which exports 98 percent of its wares, is emblematic of Switzerland’s globally oriented small- and medium-sized companies that bank on craftsmanship to drive their business.
It’s like the watch industry, where you have everything from education to the people, the quality, value, to reliability.” “It’s a product that matches the technology of those countries. “Fully automatic machines are something very German and Swiss,” said Chief Executive Officer Adrian Steiner, an electrical engineer who has worked for Thermoplan for 17 years. Thermoplan AG, based among cow pastures in Weggis, a town of 4,400 inhabitants near Lucerne, makes the automatic machines for espressos and cappuccinos in each of Starbucks’s almost 21,000 shops around the world. intensifies its charge on China, one of its little-known weapons is a family- owned company in a sleepy Swiss village. (Updates with Starbucks share price in sixth paragraph. This content was published on Aug10:37 Aug10:37
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