Lavazza

Coffee

Lavazza imports coffee from around the world. Countries include Brazil and Colombia in South America, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras in Central America, Uganda in Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam in Asia and the United States and Mexico in North America. Sustainable production concerns have led the company to develop the ¡Tierra! project, a sustainable agriculture program in Honduras, Colombia, and Peru, that seeks to improve the quality of coffee as well as the environmental and working conditions of those communities.

Branded as "Italy's Favourite Coffee," the company claims that 16 million out of the 20 million coffee purchasing families in Italy choose Lavazza. Among its offerings today are products such as: Qualità Oro, Qualità Rosso, Club, Caffè Espresso, Il Perfetto Espresso, Caffè Crema, Gran Aroma Bar, Super Crema, Crema e Gusto, Crema e Aroma, Top Class, Grand'Espresso, Dek (decaffeinated), and coffee capsules A Modo Mio, "Espresso Point" and BLUE.

Retail

The company operates a number of retail coffee shops ("Il Caffè di Roma" and "Espression"). The shops offer traditional coffee drinks as well as whole bean and ground coffee for home use.

Company

Lavazza, established in Turin, Italy in 1895, has been owned by the family of the same name for four generations. The world's seventh ranking coffee roaster, today Lavazza is the retail market leader in Italy with a market share by value of over 47% (source Nielsen), 2700 employees and sales of 1,340 mio euros (2013). The company has six production sites, four in Italy and two abroad, and operates through associated companies and distributors in more than 90 countries. Lavazza exports 46% of its production today. Lavazza credits itself with inventing the concept of blending, "the art of combining different types of coffee from different geographical areas", in its early years and claims this as a distinctive feature of all its products. The company also has 25 years experience in the production and sale of portioned coffee systems. Today, through ongoing partnerships with an international network of universities and scientific research centers, Lavazza operates four platforms in this segment. In 1979 the company established the "Luigi Lavazza Center for coffee research" which is "devoted to the study of espresso" and has evolved into the Lavazza Training Center, a network of over 50 coffee schools worldwide, where 30 thousand people receive training each year.

Among the activities promoted by the Lavazza Foundation, established in 2002, is the Tierra project which, in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance, performs research into achieving the "finest end product quality", with a focus on the living conditions of people in coffee producing countries.

Lavazza is the official coffee in the Italian Pavilion at the Expo 2015 in Milan.

Lavazza acquired the Carte Noire and Merrild brands from Jacobs Douwe Egberts in February 2016.

Calendar

Since 1991, Lavazza has produced the "Lavazza Calendar", featuring fashion photography from some of the world's leading photographers. The calendar is not available for purchase. Contributors have included: Annie Leibovitz, in 2009; David LaChapelle, in 2002; Helmut Newton, in 1993 and 1994; Ellen Von Unwerth, in 1995; Eugenio Recuenco, in 2007; and Erwin Olaf, in 2005. The calendar has become a showpiece of conceptual fashion photography.