Estimated studying time: 7 minutes
Key takeaways
- Rising prices are pushing espresso tools manufacturers in direction of strategic collaboration.
- Grinding and extraction are actually thought of one related course of.
- The Mazzer x Slayer grinder launches at London Espresso Pageant 2026.
- Lengthy-term partnerships assist manufacturers innovate with out dropping their particular person identification.
The espresso business has all the time been aggressive. Specialty espresso manufacturers place themselves because the higher-quality various to multinationals and huge chains, a distinction that calls for fixed product growth and technical credibility.
However as inexperienced espresso costs stay risky and the expectations of baristas and café house owners develop extra demanding, the funding required to carry genuinely new merchandise to market rises with them. A rising variety of companies, together with tools manufacturers and roasters, are concluding that working with rivals serves the broader business higher than working towards them.
“Partnerships in tools manufacturing are nothing new, however the development in collaboration throughout the business displays a broader shift in how we perceive espresso preparation,” says Jacopo Bambini, Group Advertising Director at Cimbali Group. “Slightly than a sequence of separate phases, there’s growing recognition that grinding, extraction, and preparation kind a single related course of.
“In specialty espresso specifically, the give attention to precision, consistency, and repeatability has accelerated this pondering. As expectations from operators rise, particularly round high quality management and workflow effectivity, there’s a pure transfer in direction of extra built-in approaches and nearer technical alignment between beforehand separate areas of experience.”
By combining experience, manufacturing services, and assets, tools manufacturers can develop merchandise that neither may have reached independently, and in doing so, increase the usual for the broader espresso business.
You may additionally like our article on how burr design is evolving.
Collaboration is trending in specialty espresso
Specialty espresso has lengthy prized particular person distinction. Roasters compete on sourcing, whereas tools manufacturers contend for engineering. But a rising variety of cofee companies are reaching the identical conclusion: collaboration gives a extra productive path ahead than competitors alone, notably as the price of bringing genuinely new merchandise to market continues to climb.
This shift has been seen amongst roasters for a number of years. As prices have remained persistently excessive, the monetary and operational burdens of innovation have pushed roasters to share threat by launching new merchandise collectively reasonably than bearing the publicity independently.
Baristas and café house owners, in the meantime, need extra consistency, extra management, and quicker workflow with out sacrificing high quality. Assembly these calls for requires a depth of experience that’s more and more tough for any tools producer to carry alone.
“There’s an growing focus, particularly inside specialty espresso, on system-based pondering, the place grinding and extraction are not seen as separate steps however as elements of a single, built-in course of,” says Jacopo. “Grinding, as soon as handled as a preparatory step, has emerged as one of the crucial important variables in espresso preparation.
“In opposition to this backdrop, two of Italy’s most influential espresso tools producers, Cimbali Group and Mazzer, have introduced a landmark partnership that alerts a brand new chapter for skilled espresso know-how.”
The partnership brings collectively Cimbali Group’s experience in espresso machines with Mazzer’s specialisation in grinding. Cimbali Group, which owns LaCimbali, Faema, Slayer, and Casadio, has many years of information in espresso know-how, whereas Mazzer contributes mechanical and burr engineering experience.
“Each corporations are family-founded and have constructed their reputations on technical experience, reliability, and a dedication to steady enchancment reasonably than short-term developments,” Jacopo says. “This alignment in tradition and values made the collaboration really feel much less like a industrial association and extra like a pure extension of our respective identities.”
Shared espresso experience is pushing innovation ahead
Because the specialty espresso business grows in each measurement and cultural relevance, collaboration has taken on higher significance. What started as a community-driven alternate has advanced right into a strategic software to extend model loyalty.
Direct competitor collaboration additionally gives the potential for curated crossovers. Espresso tools manufacturers have alternatives to mix their respective strengths, audiences, and views to create one thing that neither may produce alone.
The primary product of Cimbali Group and Mazzer’s partnership is the Mazzer x Slayer grinder, which formally launched at stand HP29 on the 2026 London Espresso Pageant, working from 14 to 17 Could.
“The Mazzer x Slayer grinder is designed for specialty espresso outlets and medium-to-high quantity environments, combining superior know-how and operational effectivity,” Jacopo explains. “It options grind-by-weight performance, an built-in load cell, 69mm conical burrs, and the brand new Mazzer ZZ burrs, developed with fully new geometries.
“These burrs are designed to scale back compressive power in favour of a bigger reducing floor, reaching a extra uniform grind and higher readability within the cup.”
As analysis into burr design has demonstrated, extreme friction throughout grinding volatilises delicate fragrant compounds earlier than extraction, leading to espresso that lacks vibrant traits.
Cimbali Group’s acquisition of Keber, a Venice-based specialist burr producer, in 2019 enabled the group to mix metallurgical experience, precision engineering, and an artisanal strategy to create high-performance burrs. Mazzer’s manufacturing services and information of grinding mechanics now add a complementary layer of precision.
“The important thing innovation lies in rethinking grinding and extraction as a unified course of reasonably than separate phases,” Jacopo says. “By designing these components to work collectively as a part of a single system, it turns into potential to realize the next stage of management over brewing variables.”
Sustaining model identification
Slightly than treating collaborations as one-off alternatives, manufacturers are more and more partaking in long-term partnerships.
“The Cimbali Group-Mazzer collaboration will prolong past a single product launch, unfolding via a long-term strategic partnership,” Jacopo says. “It represents the inspiration of a broader industrial imaginative and prescient targeted on deeper integration throughout espresso applied sciences.
“The long-term ambition is to maneuver in direction of a completely aligned bean-to-cup ecosystem, the place each stage of preparation is optimised as a part of a cohesive system that helps operator wants for consistency, pace, and management.”
But concurrently, manufacturers must retain their sense of individuality and indepenence.
“Slayer has a clearly outlined identification inside specialty espresso, notably in the way it approaches espresso as a craft-led, performance-driven expertise,” Jacopo explains. “Slightly than altering that identification, the collaboration focuses on guaranteeing that Mazzer’s grinding know-how enhances and helps it.
“Each corporations share a powerful engineering tradition and a dedication to precision, which permits for alignment at a technical stage with out compromising the distinct identification of both model. The result’s a extra related system the place grinder and machine function in sync.”
When prices are excessive and operators anticipate extra from their tools, sharing technical experience makes extra sense than duplicating it. Tools manufacturers that pool assets and information are more likely to construct a stronger market place than these working alone.
Given the regular stress to innovate in specialty espresso, we could nicely see extra rivals select to work collectively reasonably than aside.
Loved this? Then learn our article on how espresso outlets can use superior espresso machine know-how to their benefit.
Picture credit: Cimbali Group
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