A team of the best engineers, designers and marketing managers generated the necessary dynamics and synergy to make this innovation happen. This breakthrough concept was also created thanks to Nielsen Innovation’s research tools - our rainbow innovation process to steer the project and the product search cone to generate the many ideas needed to launch a new concept. Nielsen Innovation assisted Handpresso in all project stages until running production.

Strategy

The strategy was clear : to create a portable espresso machine – the Handpresso Wild – able to make a premium quality coffee anywhere. These portable espresso machines can be used indoors or outdoors, not just in the kitchen or in the office. A true “Blue ocean strategy” was followed in order not to get into the red waters where all competitors are fighting!

The strategy was simple. Following Leonardo da Vinci’s philosophy « Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication », the Handpresso Wild - the simplest espresso machine ever - was created, with a minimum number of functions, only those required to make a good espresso.

The strategy was practical. While the whole industry was focusing on fully automatic machines or closed pod systems, Handpresso took the opposite direction and created the world’s smallest espresso machine, which can be brought anywhere. The Handpresso Wild is the first portable espresso machine you can hold in your hand. Being small, it can easily be stored in a drawer, a bag, its case or hung with the kitchenware. Besides, no maintenance nor descaling is required.

Technology

The R&D engineers and designers work very closely together in all project stages. Coffee brew quality and product reliability are two factors on which they never made any compromise.

Various collaborations with big international brands have been established to optimize the quality of the Handpresso espresso as well as to develop this new market for nomadic espresso! As for the technology, it is protected by four international patents. Yet, the existing solutions for heating the water and the no-electricity option open up a lot of other opportunities.

The Handpresso technology applies to all systems of single serve pods as well as to ground coffee solutions.

Design

A disruptive innovation, Handpresso is a revolutionary concept, which adds style and is a talking point of design. In 2008, Handpresso actually won seven International design awards, mainly IF, Observeur and Formland as well as Going Green in 2009. By choosing simple shapes & colours and nice materials, Handpresso wants to show that it belongs to the high-end espresso world, as well as the mobility world (small size, light machine, accessories to reinforce its portability and ease of use). Compact and light (460g), it uses 10 times less raw material than a traditional 16 bar espresso maker, 50% of the material is recyclable aluminum. Regarding the plastic materials, all of them can be separated, which is very important recycling-wise.

The Handpresso Wild is a good example of how simplification leads to environmentally friendly products. Being entirely manual, the Handpresso Wild requires no batteries, nor electricity. You generate the energy required to brew the espresso building up the pressure by pumping. Thanks to its small size, it requires a much smaller packaging, thus reducing drastically the CO2 impact from shipping.

Marketing

Handpresso is a new concept, which has created a new market segment: the nomadic espresso. In order to make this new concept even more understandable, Handpresso has launched a series of accessories making the espresso maker all the more portable/enjoyable on the move.

Handpresso has created new uses: the « coffee ceremony » referring to the codes of the « tea ceremony ». The espresso is not prepared in the kitchen, it is shown and becomes an experience shared with family and friends, inside as well as outside. Everybody is actually free to create his own uses around the machine itself and the whole range of accessories.