Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECOBREW2 (New eco-efficient and healthy professional espresso coffee machine)

Teaser

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, and 30-40% is consumed as out-of-home espresso coffee. Current professional espresso coffee machines are based on technologies that have barely evolved in years, are very energy inefficient and, due to the materials...

Summary

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, and 30-40% is consumed as out-of-home espresso coffee. Current professional espresso coffee machines are based on technologies that have barely evolved in years, are very energy inefficient and, due to the materials used, generate unhealthy metal impurities, which are passed to the drink.

Espresso coffee has always been closely associated with social culture and fashion. One of the fastest growth segments in this market is specialty coffee. Consumers are increasingly returning to take coffee as a social activity. The preparation of coffee is a key aspect of this social experience, with espresso coffee machines and the baristas that use them considered equally important as the coffee itself. There is a growing number of coffee connoisseurs willing to pay a premium for coffee that is not only of high quality, but has also been professionally prepared and sourced in an environmentally and socially responsible way. A recent study found that 75% of coffee drinkers were concerned about the environment and were willing to pay up to 25% more for environmentally responsible coffee.

With the ECOBREW2 project, IBERITAL proposes an innovative healthy and energy-efficient professional Espresso Coffee Machine, that is also connected.

IBERITAL is a 40-year-old company that produces espresso machines. With 56 employees, and an annual turnover of 12,4 MEUR, 65% of which are exports; and a recent investment in a new 6000m2 factory. IBERITAL’s main goal is to launch the ECOBREW espresso coffee machine to the global market, duly tested and certified. The excellent results obtained during the feasibility study in SME phase 1 (GA651039) have reassured the company in two conclusions:
• The proposed technical improvements are feasible: The alfa prototype developed showed potential energy savings up to 40-50%, and content of lead lower than 10 ppm
• The existence of a great market demand for a new generation of energy efficient healthy coffee espresso machines. The possibility of reducing energy consumption is a vital buying driver, while the concept of eco-friendly and heavy-metal-free coffee is extremely welcomed by final users

The overall objectives of the ECOBREW2 project are to:
- perform final product design and development and construct beta prototypes and preseries
- perform the industrial up scaling
- certify the machine for commercialization in target countries
- test and demonstrate its performance with distributors and final users
- prepare for worldwide dissemination and commercialisation of ECOBREW espresso coffee machine

Work performed

The tasks that have been performed within each proposed work package are the following:

WP7 Project management
- Creation of the Project Team, hired new collaborators and setup Project Mgmt Office
- Carried out Design Thinking Process
- Partnered with
- engineering firm with State-of-the-art expertise in heated hydraulics
- Industrial Designer to analyse user needs, ergonomics, market trends and to design the shape, looks, materials, user experience
- IoT company to develop hardware and IoT software for the M2M solution
- Participated in H2020 Coord Day in Brussels and others via web streaming

WP1 beta prototype
- Product specifications have been decided and written
- Hydraulic circuit and systems have been designed, prototyped and tested
- New materials have been found, incorporated and tested. New washing process to add heavy metal reduction has been developed.
- Electronics control unit, displays and communication module have been designed, prototyped and tested. Firmware is in testing phase
- Internal chassis and exterior parts of the machine are designed and prototyped. Ergonomics is being fine tuned
- Beta prototypes have been built and tested

WP2 ECOBREW pre-series
- Final specifications and redesign iterations are on-going tasks currently
- Connectivity hardware module and firmware are finished, and the website is being developed
- Manufacture and testing of pre-series are programmed for after the summer

WP3 and WP4 will start when WP2 is finished.

WP5:
- Marketing Strategy is an on-going task. A team has been formed with marketing, sales and general management. The collaboration of our coach has been valuable, too. The strategy, activities, planning, budget are being developed by the team. In parallel we are working to get closer to best-known influencers. In this line, we plan to invest many resources in training and in workshops in different countries.
This year 2017 we will disseminate and communicate at Coffee Fest Nashville, Hotelex Shanghai, London Coffee Fest, World of Coffee Budapest; Host Milan; Coffee Fest Chicago; Hotellex Beijing; Coffee Expo Seoul
- Other tasks of WP5 are planned for Year 2.

WP6 Dissemination & Communication
- Development of communication actions have started in Year 1, and will intensify in Year 2:
- Participation in the most relevant fairs of the sector
- Interaction with the most influential players of the coffee community
- Programming courses on sustainability and environmental issues
- Interviews with media
- Planned and scheduled videos and contents on different social networks
- Communications and dissemination activities:
- Dissemination at Alimentaria
- Hands-on market research in several market leading European cities -London, Barcelona and Madrid- by visiting more than 100 coffee shops, learning about the market needs, disseminating the EU funded project and evangelizing on the new sustainable and healthy machine
- Participated as exhibitor in SME Instrument Innovators Summit, in Brussels
- Interview by public television BETEVE, on Feb 2017. Program addresses sustainable and eco-environmental issues.
- Exhibitors at Hostelco, Oct 2016 in Barcelona
- Published several press releases and interviews, such as La Vanguardia, Forum del Café, comunicaffe.it, El Punt Avui, Gencat.cat and Politico.eu

Final results

Innovations introduced by ECOBREW2 will be:

1. Reduction of energy required to prepare coffee
IBERITAL aspires to lead a new trend in energy efficiency consciousness in the professional espresso coffee machine market. Our studies predict a 30-50% reduction in power consumption in HORECA businesses. Considering that a traditional coffee machine is the machine with highest consumption in a coffee shop, the reduction of consumption will translate into a significant reduction of consumption in the sector.
The long-term impact is important; it is estimated that only Spain has 350,000 bars/cafeterias with a 3-5 Kw coffee machine. A reduction in power consumption of 30-50% in all professional machines along Europe will have a significant impact.

2. Healthier heavy-metal free beverage
The market has been unaware of this matter until recently in the US, where new regulations have been passed. IBERITAL intends to lead the migration of the sector into healthier practices regarding heavy metals. ECOBREW will be a first step into an era with healthier coffee

3. Connected machine
IBERITAL Introduces new systems based on IT that offer information to the barista about brewing process, machine maintenance, and connectivity with social networks to interact and bring marketing content. The impact of is difficult to forecast: reduction of maintenance visits, improvement of uptime, optimization of energy saving modes, etc

Website & more info

More info: http://www.iberital.com/en/H2020/.