Well its all about coffee wars nowadays. Recent addition been the war between Nespresso Vs Denner (Denner is a supermarket chain in Switzerland). Nestle's Nespresso was the ruler in the capsule coffee market until Denner's coffee capsules hit the market in december last year. Nestle appealed for the primary injunction against Denner's coffee capsules on Jan 11 against the sale, Advertising and production, alleging Denner's capsules as a threat to their Intellectual Property. A final blow came when on friday, 4 March 2011, the Swiss court exempted Denner saying that its coffee capsules did not infringe Nestle patents, nor they are similar to Nespresso. Denner is geared up to resume its coffee capsule production. Although Nestle spokesperson defends, saying that they will continue to appeal and will take legal actions for protecting their intellectual property in future.
Well its simple and clear, Nestle wants to stay as the ruler in the coffee market. Nespresso is estimated to occupy 1.5% of the global coffee market,which is certainly impressive. It is clear that Nestle has greater expansion plans in the agenda and stiff competitors can impede its growth and market share. But certainly it doesn't deter other coffee capsule brands to launch themselves. The Ethical Coffee company (ECC) is another brand which is about to be launched in Swiss and Germany later this year and could pose a stiff competition in the global coffee market.The Ethical Coffee offers coffee capsules 25% cheaper than Nespresso. Earlier last year Nestle sued ECC over patent infringement, well ECC has its own defense to that. To conclude, I must say, this episode will be interesting to watch ,as the competition is expected to grow stiffer in this sector.
(Image by Lea Csontos)
